Female Journalists to be Awarded

Source: Associated Press

Female journalists to be awarded
By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY - She set out to expose a pedophile ring in Cancun, naming the rich and powerful she says were involved, and became a journalism sensation after she was abducted by police, allegedly at the behest of a state governor.

Lydia Cacho peered into Cancun's underworld and came up with a stinging indictment not only of the alleged abusers, but of powerful friends and politicians she says did little or nothing to stop a prominent businessman accused of luring poor girls in the Caribbean resort to his home so that he and his friends could have sex with them.

Two years after the publication of her book "The Demons of Eden" in Mexico, Cacho's fight against those who would silence her is now before Mexico's Supreme Court.

On Tuesday, she collects a Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation in New York — a tribute to her bravery in reporting on women's and children's rights. Courage in Journalism Awards are also going to Serkalem Fasil, of Ethiopia, and six Iraqi women journalists of McClatchy's Baghdad bureau: Huda Ahmed, Shatha al Awsy, Sahar Issa, Alaa Majeed, Zaineb Obeid and Ban Adil Sarhan.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071023/ap_on_re_us/journalism_courage_awards