So the truth shall prevail

"He speaks out for the weak and checks the strong." Such are the qualities of a Chinese editor awarded the Unesco World Press Freedom Prize. Today, as the UN marks World Press Freedom Day, Cheng Yizhong stands for thousands of journalists worldwide who struggle against heavy odds to fulfil their professional duty of telling the truth.

Mr Cheng has suffered imprisonment and is barred from working. His fate is far from unique: publications are censored, suspended, or shut down the world over. Journalists are forced into exile to escape harassment, arrest and murder. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) claims 122 journalists were imprisoned at the end of 2004 - mostly in China, Cuba and Eritrea - and at least 56 journalists were killed. Iraq is undoubtedly the world's worst place to be a journalist, with a death toll of 23.

Today, we pay due tribute to journalists who consciously risk their lives to report news, wondering how and why they persevere despite clear and present danger. I put the question to Victor (not his real name), an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) currently held in a detention centre in Malta. A graduate in communications, Victor is a man of deep faith with steadfast convictions. Back home, he was arrested in the capital, Kinshasa, while reporting for a Catholic radio station.

"Journalists have no freedom of speech in DRC: if you criticise the government and you are right, you are arrested," he said. "It's dangerous, but if you know something and you don't speak out because you are afraid, you are not doing your job. Your job is to say the truth. Who will do it if you don't?"

Victor earned his government's ire for revealing its part in violence in Congo's eastern Ituri province. Since 1999, at least 60,000 people have been killed and more than half a million displaced as local groups - armed by powerful backers - fight for control. Combatants target civilians in large-scale massacres, mutilation and torture, rape and looting.

Since he comes from Ituri, Victor was moved to investigate the debacle there. His research led to a startling revelation: "I found out our government was involved". His discovery was at odds with official protestations of innocence; the government had always accused neighbouring states, Rwanda and Uganda, of fanning the flames of war in Ituri. But Victor was having none of it: "Everyone believed and supported the government but my research showed it was also conspiring to aggravate the conflict and in 2002 I said so on radio, explaining everything very well".

The following July, international watchdog Human Rights Watch would validate Victor's claims in a report citing national and international stakes at play in Ituri. That Victor was right may have sealed his fate: days after writing the article, he was arrested on a warrant charging him with harming state security. Eventually he escaped, fleeing Kinshasa and heading for Ituri.

Victor had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. He recalled: "The government could not catch me because it did not control Ituri. But it was so violent there; I lost many members of my family in the war." Victor's respite was brief - "it soon became impossible to live in Ituri" - and afraid to return to Kinshasa, he left DRC.

Victor's journey "as a clandestine" led him to Malta, where he finds it hard to handle the enforced idleness of detention: "I am used to doing something all the time: reading, writing or studying. Now I have lost everything, all we do is eat and sleep. I want to go back home; I studied to be able to help my country. But if I returned now, I don't know what would happen to me."

It may be some time before Victor can safely return. DRC is ruled by a weak, transitional government struggling to make headway after five years of nationwide war, ended in June 2003. Insecurity and lawlessness are endemic; human rights organisations say journalists are often arbitrarily arrested, threatened or beaten.

Although Victor's determination to reveal the truth led to his arrest, exile and finally his detention here, he has no regrets. "So many innocent people die in Ituri: someone must speak for them," he said. "I know it's not easy to tell the truth - anywhere. But I am fighting for the day when the innocent will see justice done, when not only militias and soldiers, but even those who put a gun in their hand, will be called to justice."

I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to meet Victor. Maltese journalists are unlikely to get the chance to do so because the authorities refuse to allow them inside detention centres. I hope World Press Freedom Day serves to remind our government too of the need to respect press freedom.