Ibrahim Essa, the outspoken editor of Egypt’s independent opposition Al Dustour newspaper has won the 2008 Tueni award from the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN). He used his December 13 acceptance remarks in Beirut, Lebanon, to call on Arab journalists to fight restrictions in the region directed against independent media voices.

“All those whom you see scrambling, competing, calling one another’s names, quarrelling and disputing at summit meetings never come out with any agreement, except on the bottom line of fighting press freedom,” Essa said. “This is the only war Arab rulers have ever agreed upon.”

The Tueni award is given in memory of Lebanese publisher Gebran Tueni who was killed by a car bomb in Beirut on December 12, 2005. Tueni’s family created the award with WAN to encourage other courageous and independent publishers, editors and newspapers in the Arab world.

Essa, who has been sentenced to prison terms and seen his newspaper temporarily shut down due to the Egyptian government’s objections to its material, was praised by WAN for crossing “many red lines” in the cause of press freedom and paying “a high price for doing so.”

In a separate statement, WAN said the hostility of Arab regimes to press freedom and critical voices is “alarming” and those daring to express dissent or investigate and challenge their governments “face charges of criminal defamation, blasphemy or endangering national security, and are regularly sentenced to hefty fines and imprisonment.”