Mawarire nominated for 2017 Index on Censorship, Freedom and Expression Award

Imprisoned cleric, Pastor Evan Mawarire, the man who started the #ThisFlag Movement has been shortlisted for the Index on Censorship, Freedom and Expression Award, in the field of Digital Activism. The award comes with a prestigious prize and year-long fellowship sponsored by Google.

According to the organisers:

…the shortlist celebrates artists, writers, journalists and campaigners overcoming censorship and fighting for freedom of expression against immense obstacles.

Shortlisted nominees are regularly targeted by authorities or by criminal and extremist groups for their work: some face regular death threats, others criminal prosecution or exile

Mawarire is one of four finalists with the others being:

• Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian Kurdish journalist who documents the life of indefinitely-interned Australian asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea
• China’s Wang Liming, also known as Rebel Pepper, a political cartoonist who lampoons the country’s leaders
• Ildar Dadin, an imprisoned Russian opposition activist, who became the first person convicted under the country’s public assembly law Daptar,

In 2014 assassinated Russian journalist, Anna Politkovsaya won the award.

Winners will be announced at a gala ceremony in London on 19 April 2017 and will become Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards fellows