This year’s CPJ awards honoring courage in defiance of censorship. CPJ will also honor OPC member, television anchor and reporter Dan Rather with its Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in defending press freedom.

The awards go out to four outstanding journalists who have endured and defied media repression in Bahrain, Belarus, Mexico, and Pakistan will be honored with the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2011 International Press Freedom Awards, an annual recognition of courageous journalism.

The awardees: Mansoor al-Jamri (Al-Wasat, Bahrain), Natalya Radina (Charter 97, Belarus), Javier Arturo Valdez Cárdenas (Ríodoce, Mexico), and Umar Cheema (The News, Pakistan)-have faced recrimination for their work, including harassment, assault, kidnapping, torture, and censorship.

“We are proud to honor these journalists, whose tenacious reporting continues in defiance of severe censorship tactics meant to silence inconvenient truths,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “By resisting threats and abuse, these journalists give voice to daily realities in their countries and secure our universal right to receive independent, reliable information.”

Editor Eynulla Fatullayev, who was honored in 2009 while still imprisoned in Azerbaijan, will receive his award after being released this year following intensive international advocacy.

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Event host is  Christiane Amanpour, ABC News anchor, CPJ board member and OPC member.

To attend: Contact CPJ’s Development Department at development@cpj.org or 212-465-1004 x113; or Buckley Hall Events at 212-573-6933