Mohamed Olad Hassan
A reporter wounded covering the war and the plight of the displaced peoples in Somalia has been awarded the Tribune-sponsored Speaker Abbott award for outstanding contributions in the struggle for press and democratic freedom.
Mohamed Olad Hassan is to be flown to Britain to receive the award from Speaker Bercow at his official residence in Westminster on June 14.
A reporter for the BBC World Service, based in Mogadishu, Mohamed has become known as the “voice of the voiceless” in Somalia, risking his life during the past seven years in order to “inform the world, to tell the truth and bring peace and democracy to my own country”.
The Speaker Abbott award was launched by the Parliamentary Press Gallery in 2003 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the press being allowed into the back row of the House Commons public gallery to report the proceedings of Parliament. Before that, there were no reserved seats for the press, who were often barred from entry.
The award is being relaunched with Tribune’s backing after a short period in which it failed to attract sponsorship. Previous winners have included murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Michel Kilo – imprisoned after becoming an emblematic figure in the struggle for democracy in Syria, Dumisani Muleya, chief reporter of the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper, Alfred Taban of the Khartoum Monitor and Associated Press reporter Jonathan Paye-Layleh for his work in Monrovia.
