UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize

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The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize is one of the most prestigious prizes in the field of journalism.

Created in 1997, the prize honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.

The prize, worth US$25,000, is awarded each year on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.

The prize is named after Guillermo Cano Isaza, the editor of the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, who was murdered in Bogotá on 17 December 1986. Cano was a vocal critic of the country's powerful drug barons.

Each year, an independent jury of 14 news professionals selected by the UNESCO Director-General selects a winner out of the many nominations submitted by non-governmental organizations working in the field of press freedom, and by UNESCO Member States.