Sevgül Uludağ, a journalist from Cyprus, who has been working towards alleviating the effects of the trauma the Cypriot societies are in and working for peace, will receive this year’s Courage in Journalism Award by the International Women’s Media Foundation. She has covered missing people and mass graves for both Turkish and Greek newspapers in Cyprus, receiving death threats and becoming target of the hate campaigns in the process.   

Bianet talked to her shortly after she learned that she was going to receive the award. Her voice sounded happy:

“I am pleased that the work I have been doing under very difficult and threatening conditions for years is recognized, because, so many times, it was very difficult to work under threat.”

About working under difficult conditions, she said:

“Sometimes you are all alone. Even those around you will tell you not to do what you are doing, to be careful, to quit. However, there is a work that needs to be done, an article that needs to be written. You go on. Sometimes many people support you, sometimes nobody does.”

It does not matter if there is an award, but it reenergizes you

Uludağ said that these kinds of international awards are helpful to increase the international visibility of a journalist and to expand the web of relationships. “At the end, one does journalism whether or not there is an award. This is not my first international award, but every time you receive an award it  reenergizes you, it lifts up your morale.”(TK/TB)