The award, which was announced in January this year, was presented Monday in Turin, Italy, during the opening ceremonies of the 66th World Newspaper Congress, 21st World Editors Forum and 24th World Advertising Forum, before 1,000 publishers, chief editors, CEOs, managing directors and their guests, according to a statement released by WAN-IFRA.

Nega was arrested on September 14, 2011 after publishing an article criticising his government’s use of the 2009 Anti-Terror Proclamation to jail and silence critics, including Ethiopian actor and activist Debebe Eshetu.  Nega is being held in Kaliti Prison outside of Addis Ababa, serving an 18-year sentence as a convicted “terrorist” for having challenged the very same laws used to imprison him, and for questioning whether the Arab Spring protests could be repeated in Ethiopia.

Accepting the award at the request of Nega’s family, who were unable to travel from their home in the United States, Swedish journalist Martin Schibbye – himself a former prisoner of the Ethiopian regime, jailed alongside Eskinder Nega for 11 months between 2011 and 2012 - said: “We must remember that Eskinder Nega, at many points, faced a choice. He is intelligent, and well educated. He could have chosen an easy life, he could have chosen another profession, but the love for the truth, for his country, for his fellow human beings, and for Ethiopia, made him a journalist.”

“He stayed, and he continued to write. That decision brought him to the dark cells. Not one time, but nine. His stubbornness is demonstrating a brand of moral courage that we need now more than ever. And courage is the only thing he is guilty of,” Schibbye further said.