By Caitlin Pike
Journalist Sumi Khan has been awarded the Index on Censorship/Hugo
Young award for “outstanding commitment to journalistic integrity in
defence of freedom of expression”.
Khan, Chittagong correspondent for Bangladeshi magazineWeekly 2000,
was in London last week to receive her award at the Index on Censorship
Freedom of Expression Awards.
Despite being brutally attacked and
receiving death threats, Khan continues to write investigative articles
on crime and corruption, alleging the involvement of local politicians
and religious groups in attacks on members of minority communities.
She
said: “I feel it is my duty as a journalist to report the great
problems of our country but also to investigate the causes of these
problems and to gain awareness of them. Our readers rely on us to tell
them what is happening. This is how we will be able to find solutions
to Bangladesh’s problems.”
Khan, 33, was ambushed in April 2004
by three men who stabbed her several times and severely wounded her
writing hand. Witnesses heard the attackers shouting that she would be
killed if she did not stop writing.
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