Colombian journalists who have risked their lives to cover the drug trade are being honored by Harvard University's Nieman Foundation. The 1990 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism has been awarded to Colombian reporters, both living and dead, who have covered the drug industry and its effect on that country, the foundation announced Friday. Luis Gabriel Cano, 67, president of El Espectador, a Bogota newspaper, will accept the award this fall. El Espectador has lost many of its staff to death or exile and had its newsroom bombed by narco-terrorists last September. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based human rights group, has documented the killing of 20 reporters and editors in Colombia by agents of drug lords in the last five years. However, Cano and other Colombian journalists estimate that 50 news organization employees, including business employees, have been killed, the foundation said. Among those murdered was Cano's brother, Guillermo Cano, El Espectador editor-in-chief and a columnist. ``Mr. Cano has lost his brother and several of his associates to the narco-mafia assassins, and recently suffered a major bombing to the paper's installations which caused $2.5 million in damages, seriously jeopardizing the paper,'' T. Roberto Eisenmann Jr., editor of La Prensa in Panama and a former Nieman fellow, wrote in nominating Cano for the award. ``Yet Cano struggled on, realizing that if his newspaper fails in its efforts, his country's institutions might crumble, giving way to narco-mafia dominance. His courage is especially inspiring for our profession.'' A committee of the 21 members of the Nieman Fellow Class of 1990 chose the Colombians for the award, which is named in honor of former Nieman curator Louis M. Lyons. The award carried an honorarium of $1,000. Cano will travel to Cambridge to accept the award on behalf of his Colombian colleagues.
