CAIRO — “The world has not forgotten [Shawkan],” Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, in an address at a ceremony in Accra awarding the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to the Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, better known as Shawkan. Akufo-Addo called on the individuals and institutions fighting for Shawkan's release from an Egyptian prison not to lose hope.
UNESCO had announced its awarding of the prize to Shawkan on April 23, a day after Egypt's Foreign Ministry expressed its opposition to the organization doing so. In an April 22 statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said, “The Foreign Ministry regrets the involvement of an organization like UNESCO in honoring a person accused of terrorist acts, homicides, assault on policemen and citizens as well as the burning and destruction of public and private property.”
