Imprisoned journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio is 2026’s Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award given to reporters unjustly detained, jailed, or imprisoned, the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) announced.
Cumpio joins other journalists from Iran, Myanmar and the US as honourees of IWMF’s 37th annual Courage in Journalism Awards for reporting under dangerous conditions and extreme pressure.
The prize was named after the prominent American philanthropist and heiress who championed various environmental and social advocacies such as the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossings LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS charities.
IWMF said it honors Cumpio for reporting on social inequality in the Eastern Visayas region, including land rights abuses, the killings of farmers, disaster response, and the impacts of militarized conflict under government policies.
She was arrested in February 2020 with four fellow activists and was subsequently charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. A year after the filing of the original charges, the Philippine government filed an additional charge against her: terrorism financing.
While absolved of the original charges, a local court convicted her of terrorism financing and refuses to grant her right to bail. In her sixth year of imprisonment, she is now detained at the Correctional Institute for Women while preparing for her appeal with the higher courts.
Cumpio was executive director of independent news outlet Eastern Vista and a radio broadcaster with Aksyon Radyo Tacloban at the time of their arrest.
IWMF added that as a student journalist at the University of the Philippines-Tacloban, Cumpio rose quickly within alternative media networks, becoming a leading voice in regional and grassroots reporting.
Charged with crimes widely regarded as fabricated, IWMF said Cumpio’s work – and her continued imprisonment – highlights the use of legal mechanisms, including anti-terror laws and red-tagging, to silence independent media in the Philippines.
In 2026, Cumpio was nominated for the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize and was shortlisted for the Reporters Without Borders Courage Prize in 2025.
From prison, Cumpio said of her award: “I am deeply honored to receive this award. But I’d like to give a greater salute to everyone who continues to believe in truth and justice. To our lawyers, our families, the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), and above all, the members of the media who fearlessly covered and exposed our stories, despite the risks.”
Cumpio continued: “Growing up in one of the poorest regions in my country, taking part in unveiling the truth, and exposing abuse has rather been a necessity than a choice. Journalism in a country ruled by only one percent of its population means providing the masses and marginalized sectors with a voice. This [award] is a recognition of the truth and the strength of the people, united.”
Courageous women journalists
Other winners of the 2026 Courage in Journalism Awards include Iranian sisters and print reporters Elaheh and Elnaz Mohammadi; Georgia Fort, a broadcast journalist from the United States; and Nay Min Ni (using a pseudonym), a digital journalist reporting from Myanmar.
“This year’s Courage Award winners, chosen from nominations across 53 nationalities, demonstrate the world’s shrinking capacity for press freedom, amplified by a mix of legal pressure, gendered intimidation, and digital targeting. Across multiple continents, each winner is operating in a different political system, yet each faces the same core dynamic: The frontlines have moved, and journalism itself is now the target,” IWMF said.
“The criminalization of truth-telling is what makes courage the future of journalism,” IWMF President Elisa Lees Muñoz said. “For the women who dare to report, journalism itself is being reframed as a punishable act. We no longer live in a world of reactive suppression but preemptive deterrence, where reporting itself is a liability. The IWMF is proud to honor Elaheh, Elnaz, Frenchie, Georgia, and Nay – women who are living with the very risk they document – with Courage Awards this year,” Muñoz added.
The 2026 IWMF Courage in Journalism Awards will be presented during a luncheon in New York City on November 10 and an evening reception in Los Angeles on November 12. It is unsure if Cumpio would be able to attend and personally receive her award.
Lawyers hail honor to client
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), counsel to Cumpio hailed the honor to be given its client.
“The IWMF award is yet another rejection of the state’s manufactured narrative. While the legal proceedings remain ongoing — with Frenchie Mae currently appealing her conviction for terrorism financing before the higher courts — no credible international institution, independent observer, or honest appraisal of the circumstances surrounding her arrest and prolonged detention has lent any legitimacy to the charge that she is a criminal,” NUPL secretary general Atty. Josalee Deinla said.
“Whatever the local court may have ruled, the world recognizes in Frenchie Mae a journalist imprisoned for doing her job; and in that recognition lies the most damning vindication of her work and cause as a people’s journalist,” Deinla added.
The NUPL said that as Cumpio’s legal counsel, it is profoundly honored and grateful for having been entrusted her legal battles.
“She has bravely faced charges that are, at their core, reprisals for her reporting human rights abuses in militarized communities in Eastern Visayas — journalism pursued not for recognition, but out of necessity, in one of the poorest regions in the country. She is one of the brave clients that inspire us to be brave lawyers,” it said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
