2001
Paul Kamara
Acceptance Speech: For Di People newspaper was…born out of a strong sense for humanity, freedom and justice. Ironically, it was precisely these values that got me imprisoned in 1984, after less than four months…as editor. We ran a story exposing how President Stevens had taken the star of Sierra Leone — the third largest diamond ever found — abroad for sale. This was how our country was run then.
I have been jailed more times than I can recount, and seen inmates die in droves...I wrote an article in which I compared that prison to a silencer that whispers a soft, painful, and agonizing death…I beg of all of you here to take the struggle against oppression, illiteracy, injustice beyond the level of Prizes. Always fight for the right. In fighting for truth, we advance the human condition.