Freedom prize for Zimbabwe lawyer

Beatrice has repeatedly clashed with the government

Zimbabwean lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa is among the recipients of this year's International Press Freedom Awards by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The other recipients were journalists from Brazil, China and Uzbekistan.

Zimbabwe has in recent years closed newspapers and introduced increasingly strict laws restricting the media.

The CPJ said: "In a country where the law is used as a weapon... Mtetwa has defended journalists and argued for press freedom, at great personal risk."

"I didn't do anything other than to do my job," Ms Mtetwa told the BBC News website.

"My most important work never gets near the media," she added, referring to her work as a human rights lawyer.

Court orders

Earlier this year, Ms Mtetwa won an acquittal for Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds of the British Sunday Telegraph newspaper, who were arrested during presidential elections.

She worked on behalf of the Zimbabwean independent paper the Daily News, which suffered repeated harassment by the government until being closed in 2003.

In 2003 Ms Mtetwa became internationally known for her efforts to stop the deportation of Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum, a United States citizen, from Zimbabwe.

She obtained court orders allowing Mr Meldrum to remain in Zimbabwe, but he was nevertheless abducted by police and detained before being put onto a plane out of the country.

Once she had found out that he was at the airport, Ms Mtetwa ran onto the tarmac with a new court order in her hand - but was just too late to stop the plane from taking off.

Later that year, Ms Mtetwa was arrested on allegations of drunken driving, and held for three hours at a police station, where she was beaten and choked, then released without charge.

Other recipients of this year's International Press Freedom Awards are:
• Galima Bukharbaeva, former Uzbekistan correspondent for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting
• Lucio Flavio Pinto, publisher and editor of the Brazilian newspaper Jornal Pessoal
• Shi Tao, an imprisoned Chinese journalist