The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, created in 1997, honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.
The prize, worth US$ 25,000, is awarded each year on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.
The prize is named after Guillermo Cano Isaza, the editor of the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, who was murdered in Bogotá on 17 December 1986. Cano was a vocal critic of the country's powerful drug barons.
Each year, an independent jury[1] of six news professionals selected by the UNESCO Director-General selects a winner from the many nominations submitted by non-governmental organizations working in the field of press freedom, and by UNESCO Member States. The jury remains in charge for a period of three years, renewable once.
The anti-mafia Italian journalist Marilù Mastrogiovanni serves as Chair of the jury as of 2021.[2] Other members of the Jury are:
| Year | Recipient | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Gao Yu | China | |
| 1998 | Christina Anyanwu | Nigeria | |
| 1999 | Jesús Blancornelas | Mexico | |
| 2000 | Nizar Nayyouf | Syria | |
| 2001 | Win Tin | Myanmar | |
| 2002 | Geoffrey Nyarota | Zimbabwe | |
| 2003 | Amira Hass | Israel | |
| 2004 | Raúl Rivero | Cuba | |
| 2005 | Cheng Yizhong | China | |
| 2006 | May Chidiac | Lebanon | |
| 2007 | Anna Politkovskaya | Russia (posthumous award) | |
| 2008 | Lydia Cacho Ribeiro | Mexico | |
| 2009 | Lasantha Wickrematunge | Sri Lanka (posthumous award) | |
| 2010 | Mónica González Mujica | Chile | |
| 2011 | Ahmad Zeidabadi | Iran | |
| 2012 | Eynulla Fatullayev | Azerbaijan[3] | |
| 2013 | Reeyot Alemu | Ethiopia | |
| 2014 | Ahmet Şık | Turkey | |
| 2015 | Mazen Darwish | Syria | |
| 2016 | Khadija Ismayilova | Azerbaijan | |
| 2017 | Dawit Isaak | Sweden/Eritrea | |
| 2018 | Mahmoud Abu Zeid[4] | Egypt | |
| 2019 | Kyaw Soe Oo & Wa Lone[5] | Myanmar | |
| 2020 | Jineth Bedoya Lima | Colombia | |
| 2021 | Maria Ressa[6] | Philippines | |
| 2022 | Belarusian Association of Journalists | Belarus | |
| 2023 | Niloofar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi, Narges Mohammadi[7] | Iran | |
| 2024 | Palestinian journalists covering Gaza[8] | Palestine |