WKU News

Manuel Calloquispe is not a stranger to violence. Reporting on the illegal extraction of gold near his hometown of Puerto Maldonado, Peru, has left him vulnerable to angry miners and those who threaten the Peruvian Amazon. According to John Otis, a Columbia-based consultant for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Calloquispe is willing to venture into dangerous areas to report on deforestation and other harms committed against the Amazon rainforest.

“He’s pretty exposed to all the dangers,” said Otis. “It’s almost always the journalists that are out in the sticks that are the most vulnerable.”

Calloquispe was announced as the seventh recipient of the prestigious Fleischaker/Greene Award for Courageous International Reporting on April 1. He will visit campus April 22-25 to receive the award from the Western Kentucky University School of Media & Communication. The ceremony and speech will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, in Gary Ransdell Hall and is open to the public. Calloquispe also will visit classes and share his experiences covering environmental issues.

Kim Greene, the co-founder of the award, stated how excited she was to offer this year’s award to Calloquispe. “In the Madre de Dios region of Peru, the epicenter of violent, political, protests and illegal gold mining, one journalist dares to report the truth: Manuel Calloquispe,” said Greene. “We tremendously admire Manuel’s persistent coverage in the face of frequent threats on his life. His dedication to bringing truthful information to Peruvians is unparalleled.”

In 2008, Louisville attorneys Jon Fleischaker and Kim Greene created the Fleischaker/Greene Fund for Excellence in First Amendment Issues at Western Kentucky University. The award recognizes a journalist who often reports under dangerous circumstances to protect freedom of speech and lead efforts to better understand populations that are underreported. The Fund also supports WKU’s Fleischaker/Greene Scholars Program, which gives top students in the School of Media & Communication the opportunity to take an advanced special topics class and brings nationally recognized speakers in journalism and First Amendment issues to the WKU campus.

Past award recipients include Lineth Bedoya Lima in 2016 from Colombia, Lotfullah Najafizada in 2017 from Afghanistan, Marcela Turati in 2018 from Mexico, Jessikka Aro in 2019 from Finland, Carol Guzy in 2023 from the United States and Olga Rudenko and the staff of the Kyiv Independent in 2023 from Ukraine.

For information about the recipients and the award ceremony contact Jeanie Adams-Smith, Professor of Visual Journalism and Photography, 270-745-4144 or jeanie.adams-smith@wku.edu