Investigative journalist Rafael Marques de Morais was one of two awardees selected to receive the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression journalism award at a ceremony held in London on March 18, 2015.
Marques de Morais was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the Forum from March–August 2011, during which time he worked on a book, Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, about systematic human rights abuses against workers in Angola’s diamond mines.
On March 24, 2015. he will stand trial in Angola facing charges of defamation and criminal libel made by several Angolan generals implicated in his book for ties to diamond mines where human rights abuses occured. In 2012, Marques de Morais was similarly accused of libel in Portugal by nine Angolan generals, where the case was eventually thrown out by Portugal’s court in 2013.
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Watch Rafael Marques de Morais speak about “Corruption: An Impediment to Democracy in Angola” at NED on May 12, 2011.