IWMF Honors Reporters at Annual Courage in Journalism Awards

The International Women’s Media Foundation honored two journalisms for their working reporting “despite incredible odds” during their annual Courage in Journalism Awards Tuesday night.

Co-Hosts Willow Bay, Gelila Assefa Puck and Charmaine DeGraté welcomed an intimate crowd for a dinner celebration in Los Angeles. Bay, who currently serves as the dean of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, has been involved with the IWMF for two decades and said she feels grateful for Puck and DeGraté for joining her a co-host for this year’s event.

“What’s interesting now, decades later, is that their [journalists] stories used to feel a little remote. They were out there in the world,” Bay told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Today, we are living at a moment where freedom of the press has never been more in jeopardy, where women journalists and non-binary journalists have never been more in danger,” she continued, noting that the danger is as close to home as it is far away. “I think the inspiration remains true each and every year, but the sense of urgency feels very powerful and very palpable right now to support this kind of work.”

“I think that we’ve all seen the last few years now more than ever, there seems to be a little bit of threat around journalism, particularly, specifically female journalism,” DeGraté said of why the IWMF’s work is so meaningful to her.

Puck, who said Bay brought her into the fold, said she has “always” been against corruption. “Here you have incredible journalists that highlight the truth, that fight every single day out there in a war zone,” she said, highlighting that the journalists also unveil corruption among government officials. “These are journalists that cannot be bought. An organization like this, is so important, nowadays, that it exists because without this organization, we cannot really bring the truth to the world.”

Among the women honored were New Hampshire-based NHPR reporter Lauren Chooljian and Ecuadorian journalist Mónica Velásquez, the latter of which was unable to attend as she has had to flee from her native country following her investigative reporting into political corruption and organized crime.

Chooljian, a senior reporter and producer at NH’s NPR affiliate, was honored for her work as the host and reporter behind The 13th Step, a podcast about sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment industry in the state. “I do audio storytelling, so telling dynamic stories that people just want to hear more of is such a great opportunity and I love to do it,” she said.

“It’s exceedingly difficult work, especially when you’re taking on big topics like this, but what motivates me is that so many people are brave enough to speak with me and it’s their bravery,” she continued. “I think that keeps me going.”

IWMF also honored documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe of Myanmar with the Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award. Daewe was sentenced to life in prison in 2024 for, according to the IWMF, “allegedly ‘funding and assisting terrorists’ and was charged behind closed doors by a military tribunal without access to legal representation.”

Gulchehra Hoja, a 2020 Courage in Journalism honoree, closed out the night, in conversation with Bay. The Uyghur journalist, who works for Radio Free Asia in the U.S., spoke of her and the Uyghur people’s experience, adding that she has been banned from returning home.

“Compared to regular journalists in the U.S., every time we interview someone in [the] Uyghur community, we must have to ask, ‘Do you want to give your name and voice to us, to our radio? Is it going to harm your family back home?” Hoja explained.

“This question, every time I repeat [it], I will think about my family too,” she continued. Hoja said she has been unable to communicate with her family for years. The journalist said that reporting on her radio show in her language pushes and the show’s team as they are preserving their language.

“The stakes are clearly different,” Chooljian said, referring to her work and Hoja’s work. “But if we don’t tell these stories, then who will?”