Edward Mortimer

Edward Mortimer is Senior Vice-President and Chief Programme Officer at the Salzburg Global Seminar. From 1998 to 2006 he served as chief speechwriter and (from 2001) as director of communications to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He has spent much of his career as a journalist, first with The Times of London, where he developed an expertise in Middle East affairs, and later with The Financial Times, where from 1987 to 1998 he was the main commentator and columnist on foreign affairs.
Mr. Mortimer has also served as a fellow and/or faculty at several institutions, including Oxford University (where he is a Fellow of All Souls College), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and (as Honorary Professor) the University of Warwick; and on the governing bodies of several non-governmental organizations, including Chatham House, the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, the John Stuart Mill Institute, and Minority Rights Group International.
Mr. Mortimer received an M.A. in modern history from Oxford University. His writings include: "People, Nation, State: The Meaning of Ethnicity and Nationalism" (co-edited with R. Fine 1999), "The World that FDR Built" (1989), "Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam" (1982).
in memoriam : Peter Mackler
J.S. Tissainayagam, a Sri Lankan reporter, is the first winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism, which honours the memory of one of the original board members of the AFP Foundation.
On August 31, Mr Tissainayagam was jailed for 20 years on charges of supporting terrorism.
The award was made by the Paris-based organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which issued a statement saying:
"This country (Sri Lanka) needs journalists who are determined and concerned with finding the truth. J.S. Tissainayagam is one of those and should never have been imprisoned. Sri Lankans have the right to be informed about what is happening on their island."
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