Mazen Darwish

Mazen Darwish ( born 1974 ) is a Syrian lawyer and journalist. He is President of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression ( CMFE ). Darwish was awarded the 2013 Bruno Kreisky Award for services to human rights.

Life

Darwish is the President of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression ( CMFE ), a partner organization of Reporters Without Borders, which he founded in 2004. The organization has been denied accreditation by the Syrian government, but they acted on in the underground.

In April 2008, Darwish was arrested together with a colleague after they have reported riots in Adra, Syria, a city near Damascus. He then had ten days in jail for "defamation and denigration of state authority ." After his arrest in the wake of the storming of the offices of its center in February 2012, he was no longer released and brought before a military court. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

Prices

Mazen Darwish was in 2013 with the Bruno Kreisky Prize for services to human rights. He drew attention in particular to the disappearance of reporters and bloggers in Syria, the Bruno Kreisky Foundation established the award. Instead of jailed laureate took his wife Yara Bader in Vienna accepted the award. 2012 Darwish was honored by the human rights organization Reporters Without Borders as a journalist of the year.