The Committee to Protect Journalists is honoring human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa for her work protecting Zimbabwean journalists.

Mtetwa is one of six winners of the New York-based group’s 2008 International Press Freedom Award. She is also to receive the organization’s Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for lifetime achievement for her work protecting Zimbabwe's long-besieged press corps.

She will be presented the award next week in New York.

Mtetwa, who won the CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2005, has fought for and won acquittals for many journalists arrested under Zimbabwe’s oppressive media laws. She has also provided legal counsel for many victims of general human rights abuses.

Appearing at the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday, Mtetwa told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that repression of the Zimbabwean media has continued despite the signing Sept. 15 of a power-sharing agreement.