IPI and IMS announce 2026 recipients of World Press Freedom Hero and Free Media Pioneer awards

Today, the International Press Institute (IPI) and IMS (International Media Support) are proud to announce this year’s recipients of the World Press Freedom Hero and Free Media Pioneer awards, who together demonstrate remarkable courage, ingenuity, and resilience amid an increasingly challenging environment for press freedom and independent journalism around the world.

The 2026 recipients of the World Press Freedom Hero Award are Patricia Evangelista (Philippines), Mónica González (Chile), and Hungary’s independent journalists. 

The IPI-IMS World Press Freedom Hero Award honours journalists who have made significant contributions to independent journalism, particularly in the face of great personal risk. Last year, as IPI marked its 75th anniversary, seven journalists from Ethiopia, Georgia, Hong Kong, Palestine, Peru, Ukraine, and the United States were named World Press Freedom Heroes.

The recipients of the Free Media Pioneer Award are the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (El CLIP) and Abzas Media and Meydan TV (Azerbaijan). The 2026 recipients were drawn from a global shortlist of organisations from around the world that have been true trailblazers in opening up new frontiers for the free flow of news and information in their countries and regions. 

In addition to the winners, the following organisations were shortlisted for the 2026 Free Media Pioneer Award: the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA),Forbidden Stories, the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Netra News, Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism, Radio Dabanga, Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ), and Zan Times.   

The awards will be presented at a special event at this year’s Gabo Festival (July 24-26, Bogotá, Colombia), the leading event for journalists in Ibero-America.

“This year’s group of awardees are a testament to the resilience of independent media amid turbulent times,” IPI Executive Director Scott Griffen said. “As the global environment grows increasingly hostile to press freedom, these organisations and individuals have demonstrated remarkable bravery and commitment to standing up to rising authoritarianism by shining a light on corruption and human rights abuses in their own countries and regions. We stand in solidarity with them, and join them in their fight for free media and free societies.”

“With information integrity under mounting pressure everywhere, the importance of protecting the free flow of public interest information cannot be overstated,” IMS Executive Director Jesper Højberg said. “Safeguarding that flow is exactly what the recipients of the 2026 IPI-IMS press freedom awards do. Day in and day out, navigating both acute and long-term risks, they expose transgressions of the powerful and the devastating consequences of greed and inequality. The awards are a token of our gratitude for their courage and determination to defend the hopes and values we share.”

World Press Freedom Heroes

Patricia Evangelista is a Manila-based freelance journalist covering human rights, conflict, and disaster. She was a former investigative reporter for the Philippine news company Rappler.  Evangelista’s courageous reporting on the human impact of violence shed light on widespread human rights abuses and the struggles of marginalised communities in the Philippines during the country’s drug war, for which former president Rodrigo Duterte will stand trial at the International Criminal Court. 

Evangelista’s debut book, “Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country,” an account of the Philippine drug war, was hailed as “a journalistic masterpiece” by The New Yorker.  

“I am honoured to be recognised for this award, but journalism is not a solitary act,” said Evangelista. “The freedoms I have enjoyed I owe to an extraordinary tribe of Filipino reporters, photographers, and filmmakers. Many of them have risked far more than I, and have been jailed, sometimes killed, for doing the job. I accept this award in their name, and of all those who continue the work of keeping a record.”

Mónica González is an award-winning investigative journalist who uncovered corruption, atrocities, and human rights abuses committed under Chile’s Pinochet regime. González’s dedicated commitment to independent, investigative reporting — despite experiencing imprisonment, exile, and repeated judicial prosecutions for her work — has earned her a reputation as one of Latin America’s most renowned journalists. She is currently the director of the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIPER), which she founded in 2007.

“When the fake news industry, with its incitement of hatred and violence, seizes control of the media and corrodes democracy, the voices of dedicated journalists rise up in Latin America,” said González. “With their stories and investigations, with courage, they make it possible to combat the collusion between organised crime, corrupt power, and authoritarianism. This is a tribute to the best ethical and independent journalism — more necessary today than ever before — to banish fear, defend life, and uphold the right to love.”

For 16 years under the illiberal regime of former prime minister Viktor Orbán — whose rule ended in elections in April — Hungary’s independent journalists demonstrated remarkable commitment to truth and watchdog reporting. They did so in the face of a repressive, relentless machinery of state propaganda, state capture of the media, and pressure.

Despite Orbán’s best efforts to drive out all forms of independent journalism from the country, Hungary’s free press managed to continue to report the truth and to hold the powerful to account — demonstrating how facts and information are a powerful antidote to state propaganda.  

Free Media Pioneers

Functioning both as an investigative newsroom and a coordination centre amplifying reporting across Latin America, the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (El CLIP) tackles stories and investigations that would be impossible to cover within national boundaries. El CLIP’s team of journalists and media outlets from the region regularly conduct collaborative, data-driven investigations on topics such as organised crime, corruption, and abuses of power with the aim of driving accountability across borders.

By leveraging digital tools and shared platforms, El CLIP’s work has broken through today’s crowded online spaces, providing accessible and comprehensive reporting on the most pressing issues facing the region.

“We at CLIP are grateful and thrilled to receive the IPI-IMS Free Media Pioneer Award,” said María Teresa Ronderos, Director of El CLIP. “This award is especially meaningful to us, as it encourages us to keep reporting where the waves break, while leveraging digital tools to serve investigative journalism.” 

Founded in 2016, Abzas Media is known for fearless investigative reporting exposing high-level corruption, amplifying voices of marginalised communities, and holding those in power accountable. Founded in 2013 by a dissident blogger, Meydan TV is known for its citizen journalism and broadcasts on socio-political issues and human rights abuses in Azerbaijan.

Despite becoming the targets of retaliation under Azerbaijan’s authoritarian Aliyev regime, Abzas Media and Meydan TV stand as rare beacons of independent journalism in Azerbaijan’s increasingly repressive media environment. Forced into exile after a wave of arrests beginning in November 2023 targeted both outlets’ journalists, Abzas Media and Meydan TV have continued their fearless reporting on corruption and human rights abuses in Azerbaijan in exile, while many of their imprisoned journalists continue to author stories behind bars.   

The resilience, bravery, and commitment to press freedom demonstrated by all of Abzas Media and Meydan TV’s unjustly imprisoned journalists is an inspiring example of media resistance to rising authoritarianism. 

“Receiving this award is deeply meaningful for Abzas Media. Because of its investigations exposing corruption by state officials, Abzas Media became the first target of the wave of repression that began in November 2023,” said Gunel Safarova, acting director & editor-in-chief of Abzas Media.“Despite this level of repression, Abzas Media continues its investigations. For us, this recognition is not only an acknowledgement of our professional work. It is also an important sign of support showing that our colleagues, who have been unjustly sentenced to years behind prison walls, are not forgotten, that their courage is seen, and that the fight for truth continues beyond prison walls.”

“For us at Meydan TV, this award is not merely a recognition of our professional work, but also a significant source of moral support during a very difficult and sensitive period,” said Orkhan Mammad, editor-in-chief of Meydan TV. “Especially for our imprisoned colleagues, this award is a source of hope, joy, and resilience…Despite the difficulties, pressure, and restrictions we face, this award is a testament that our work does not go unnoticed, and that the international community stands with us in our struggle to preserve access to accurate information in Azerbaijan.”