Ilze Jaunalksne

Ilze Jaunalksne is a Latvian journalist and was an anchor for the current affairs program De Facto.^[1][1][2] In March of 2006 on De Facto, she broke the story of Latvian national political leaders from various different parties buying votes.^[1][3] Her reporting on this caused a minister to be forced to resign, and some high-ranking political figures to be indicted.^[3] In retaliation, her phone was illegally tapped and transcripts of her conversations released to the media by her opponents in the government.^[1]

In response to this invasion of her privacy, Jaunalksne took the government to court for defamation of character, which was the first such case in Latvia.^[2][4][1] She won, with the Latvian Financial Police being ordered to pay her 100,000 lats ($187,000) in damages for illegally recording her calls and making the transcripts public, and the Finance Ministry and State Revenue Service being found guilty of invading her privacy.^[1]

She received a 2007 International Women of Courage award.^[2][1] However, she could not attend the ceremonies since she was about to give birth.^[5]

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