United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has announced the name of murdered Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge as the winner of the 2009 World Press Freedom Prize. Wickrematunge was assassinated on January 8 this year. The award will be presented by UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura in a ceremony on May 3, World Press Freedom Day. This year the agency will celebrate it in Doha.

 

Wickrematunge was chosen by a jury of 14 professional journalists from around the world. He is the second reporter in the award's 12-year history to be honoured posthumously. Earlier, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in 2006, was awarded the prize in 2007.

 

The prize was created in 1997 and holds a prize of $ 25,000. It is awarded annually to honour the work of an individual or a group defending or promoting freedom of expression anywhere in the world, especially if this action puts the individual's life at risk. The prize is financed by the Cano and Ottaway family foundations. It is named after Colombian newspaper publisher Guillermo Cano who was assassinated in 1987 for denouncing the activities of powerful drug barons in his country.