Rana Ayyub Wins McGill Medal For Journalistic Courage

Ayyub was a former reporter with The Tehelka and is best known for her work on the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Journalist Rana Ayyub. 

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/ Rana Ayyub)

Indian journalist Rana Ayyub was awarded the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage for the year 2020 on Monday, 24 February.

Ayyub is presently associated with The Washington Post as Global Opinions Writer and will collect the award at The Grady College Of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia on 22 April.

"I accept this award on behalf of all journalists who are fighting an unpopular battle to speak the truth," tweeted Ayyub after winning the award.

Ayyub was formerly an investigative reporter with The Tehelka and is best known for her work on the Gujarat riots of 2002. She wrote a book called Gujarat Files: Anatomy Of A Cover-Up that questions the role of now Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and Home Minister Amit Shah in the riots.

“Ayyub is committed to telling the stories of people who can’t do it on her own, making her an ideal McGill medal recipient” said Sofia Gratas, the McGill Fellow responsible for researching the nomination.

In her fourteen-year long career, Ayyub has also been at the receiving end of a lot of real-life and social media abuse. These threats manifested in real life too as some elements morphed her face on a pornographic video and circulated it.

In 2018, The United Nations Human Rights Commission called upon to Indian government to protect her after she faced multiple threats to her life following an online campaign.

In 2019, she was named by Time magazine as one of the ten global journalists who face the maximum threat to their lives. She has also been profiled by The New Yorker.

The McGill medal is named after Ralph McGill, former editor of the Atlanta Constitution who was called “the conscience of the South” for his editorials challenging racial discrimination in the 1950s and 60s.