IWPR Journalist Honoured

One highlight of recent months was when Ibrahimi, IWPR's intrepid reporter in the north, won the Italian Journalists' Association's Journalist of the Year award.

In early March, he travelled to Viareggio to accept the award.

Ibrahimi is one of few journalists who have dared to report on the rise of warlordism in the north, uncovering abuses that local residents suffer at the hands of powerful armed men there.

In March, IWPR reporter Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi travelled to Italy to collect the Italian Journalists' Association's Journalist of the Year award.

The case of his brother, Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh - who was condemned to death by a court in Balkh in January this year for allegedly downloading and distributing an article on women's rights from the Internet - has also garnered much international attention.

The young journalism student has since had his death sentence rescinded, yet now faces 20 years in jail for the offence. He has consistently denied the charges against him and said that a confession he signed while held in custody by the National Security Directorate was coerced.

During his European tour, Ibrahimi gave a speech to Reporters Sans Frontieres in Paris; addressed an audience of several thousand in Brussels, and also met a number of organisations in Amsterdam.