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PROFILE: Free speech award winner sees journalism as tool for peace

Oct 1, 2008, 17:18 GMT

Washington - Amy Goodman, host of the widely-syndicated TV/radio show Democracy Now! that has been dominated by coverage of the Iraq war and its fallout, is the first journalist to win a so- called Alternative Nobel Prize with a 2008 Right Livelihood Awards.

Goodman, who founded the grassroots global news show, was honoured for 'developing an innovative model of truly independent political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media,' the Right Livelihood Foundation said of the award, which was announced Wednesday in Sweden.

'Welcome to Democracy Now, the war and peace report' - that's how Goodman greets listeners every weekday morning on her hour-long show, which is currently syndicated to more than 700 radio and TV networks.

When US soldiers invaded Iraq six years ago, Democracy Now! stood out as the only media forum for opponents of the war in the United States.

'I really believe in free speech and independent journalism as a tool for peace, for understanding. It is so important, especially during times like these, that the media hold the politicians' feet to the fire ... we all need the real answers, the truth as best we can,' the 51-year-old journalist said in reaction to getting the award.

Goodman was born in 1957, graduated from Harvard in 1984 and became news director at New York radio station WBAI a few years later. She launched Democracy Now! in 1996.

She received the Golden Reel for the Best National Documentary for Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship in 1998, and the Robert F Kennedy Memorial Prize for Massacre: The Story of East Timor.

The East Timor story was near-fatal for Goodman, who survived a massacre in which Indonesian soldiers gunned down 270 Timorese.

Today, she continues her fight against the US administration's curtailment of civil rights, in place after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She has challenged American journalists to decide whether they are shields or swords.

On receiving the Alternative Nobel with four others - three of them women - Goodman said: 'It makes me realise how important the work of bringing a truly independent voice to broadcast news and journalism really is.'

That's why Goodman says she continues to get up every morning and go to work 'still as excited as my first day at Democracy Now! over 12 years ago.'