About The Award

The Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism honors non-mainstream journalists who continue to tell challenging truths in difficult times. The funds provided by this Award enable these courageous journalists to continue their work in an environment that penalizes them for their clarity of vision and willingness to expose the powerful.

Honoring Serena Shim

Serena Shim (1985-2014) was an American journalist working for Iranian broadcaster Press TV. Reporting from the Turkish-Syrian border, she reported about fighters from ISIS crossing from Turkey into Syria, disguised in trucks carrying the symbols of NGOs and the World Food Programme. Serena told her employers that she was threatened by Turkish intelligence and accused of espionage. Two days later, she was suddenly killed in a suspicious car accident in October 2014, the circumstances of which have remained murky since that time. When she was threatened by the Turkish intelligence, she continued to report despite her well-founded fears, and paid the ultimate price for her uncompromised integrity in journalism.

Watch one of Serena’s final video reports below: