Assange receives Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize in Venezuela for ‘brave and fearless’ journalism

Australian journalist spent 5 years in prison in the UK and was released on June 24

Australian journalist  and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange received the special journalism award in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday, July 1. The annual award known as the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize is in its 82nd edition, is awarded by the Venezuelan government and has 10 categories. 

Assange was honored for producing “brave and fearless journalism in the age of truth as the essence of defending freedom of expression and people’s right to information.”

On June 24, Assange was released from the maximum security prison where he had been held for more than five years in the UK capital of London. He returned to Australia after agreeing to plead guilty in a US court to revealing military secrets in exchange for his freedom.

The WikiLeaks founder was arrested by British police in 2019 and held in the maximum-security Belmarsh prison. He had previously spent seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he sought refuge to avoid extradition on sexual assault charges in Sweden, which were later dropped. The journalist sparked the ire of the United States for releasing a large number of documents proving crimes committed by the country’s military in its campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the so-called “war on terror.”

According to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the special award to the Australian journalist was given fairly to a man “who has always been free.”

“A well-deserved award, well-deserved to Julian Assange who today walks free in the streets. But he was always free in the dungeons, in the prisons, in the kidnappings, he was always a free man. Here I have it, it goes to you on behalf of all the people of Venezuela,” said Maduro.

The general prize was awarded to Venezuelan journalist Rosita Caldera, from the state of Monagas. In the Print category, the prize went to Mercedes Chacín, Francys Zambrano and Ricardo Romero, from the newspaper  Ciudad Caracas, for the report “Essequibo: Peace and Sovereignty.”

Luis Guillermo García, from TeleSur, won the “Television” category with his program  El mundo desde el Sur. YVKE Mundial radio station was also honored for its 80 years on the air.

Maduro congratulated the award winners and honorees for “bringing the truth and, in doing so, bringing justice to the country.” The president also praised TeleSur’s coverage of last week’s coup attempt in Bolivia  . 

“They denounced the coup d’état before it happened in Bolivia, they broadcast the coup d’état live, they broadcast the historic act of bravery by President Lucho Arce, confronting the traitor and coup-monger Zúñiga, and then they broadcast the victory of the people, who went by the thousands to surround and take over his Presidential Palace,” said Maduro.