HYDERABAD, India: Pakistani editor Najam Sethi, repeatedly jailed under various regimes, received a prestigious press freedom award Tuesday for his work in the face of constant death threats.

Sethi, former editor-in-chief of the Friday Times and Daily Times in Pakistan, accepted the 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom from the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), warning that extremists now posed as great a threat to press freedoms as repressive governments.

Speaking at the WAN's annual conference in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, Sethi noted that the Taliban had prevented the sale of his newspapers in areas of Pakistan under their control and had placed him on a hit-list along with three other Pakistani journalists.

'My family lives in a constant state of siege, guarded by eight police commandos around the clock,' Sethi said.

A long-time advocate of a substantial peace dialogue between South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, Sethi said the media in both countries were 'entrapped by a narrow nationalism' that provided a powerful barrier to government-to-government contact.

'While I am honoured by this award, it would mean much more to me to advance my dream of everlasting peace in South Asia,' he said. – AFP