March 30, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1428

WASHINGTON: Carlotta Gall, the New York Times correspondent who was reportedly beaten up in Quetta by security men, has won a prestigious journalism award from the Georgetown University.

Winners of the 2007 Edward Weintal Prize for International Reporting from the university’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy were “selected for their outstanding reporting and analyses over the past year,” said a press release. Ms Gall was reportedly beaten in her hotel room in Quetta in December last year by a group of men who identified themselves as members of a special branch of the Pakistan police. Her colleague, photographer Akhtar Soomro was detained, but released the next day.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists described this as “part of an ongoing pattern of abuses against the press in Pakistan.” While condemning the incident, CPJ expressed alarm at “the use of government security services to harass journalists who are reporting in Pakistan on issues of global significance.”