Joanne Faulkner,

Editor (Asia – Middle East & Central)

 

STRASBOURG - Two opponents of the Iranian government have been awarded the 2012 Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought, an accolade, which brings publicity to the causes of repressed voices. This year’s prize was given to imprisoned lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, currently serving six years in solitary confinement, and acclaimed humanist filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

Jafar Panahi’s films on life in Iran have also seen him placed in jail for six years and banned  him from film-making for twenty years due to ignoring Iran’s rigorous state censors and cultural codes. In 2011, Panahi released a documentary entitle This is not a Film, which was smuggled out of Iran on a USB drive concealed in a cake. Nasrin Sotoudeh is known for defending activists and sympathetic journalists from the June 2009 Presidential Election. Sotoudeh’s health is rapidly deteriorating as she reaches day 10 of hunger strike protesting the treatment and harassment of her family.

Others up for the Sakharovv prize were Russian punk band Pussy Riot, two members of which, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, are currently serving time in a prison camp for anti-Putin protests, and imprisoned Belarus civil right activists, Ales Beliatsky, leader of the Vyasna human rights organisation

Founded in 1988, The E.U awards the Sakharov prize to those perceived as dedicated to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought. Winners of the prize receive €50,000 euro. Previous winners include Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader.

Last year’s prize went to those who were seen as key in the orchestration of the Arab Spring.