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Juárez Journalist Honored With Daniel Pearl Award
EL PASO, Texas -- Mexican journalist Sandra Rodríguez Nieto will receive this year's Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism in a ceremony this summer.
The award, named after the Wall Street Journal reporter who was killed by militants in Pakistan, honors journalists who demonstrate courage while working under dangerous conditions.
Rodriguez Nieto reported for El Diario newspaper in the Mexican border city of Juárez during a wave of drug violence that resulted in thousands of murders, including two of her colleagues.
"I didn't think a lot about the danger," she said. "I was convinced that my job as a journalist was the most important thing."
Rodriguez Nieto uncovered stories of government corruption, failures in the judicial system and wrote a book about how criminal organizations influence the city's youth. She will receive the award June 23 at the Southern California Journalism Awards in Los Angeles.