Zaki Daryabi, an Afghan journalist, has been awarded the International Anti Corruption 2020 Award by the global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International. 

“Kazakh Whistleblower Botakoz Kopbayeva & Zaki Daryabi and his newspaper Etilaat Roz, have been recognized with the Anti-Corruption Award 2020 in the virtual ceremony held at the #IACC2020,” tweeted Transparency International.  

Daryabi, who is the editor in chief of Etilaat Raz newspaper, published around forty investigative reports exposing corruption in the Afghan government system and policies. Some of the published reports rattled the powerful politicians of the country to the extent that Daryabi started receiving threats and pressures from them.  

Despite receiving threats over his coverage of the corruption-related issues, Daryabi continued publishing his newspaper. The newspaper now publishes in three languages; Dari Pashto and English.

Accepting the award Daryabi said, “In my view, the Transparency International's anti-Corruption Award gave us--as a nation and a country--an opportunity for the capacity of Afghanistan's investigative journalism to be recognized,”

The award for the Afghan journalist also comes at a time when most of the Afghan journalists have been facing threats amid the increasing violence in the country. Recently an Afghan journalist, Dayee, was killed in a car bomb in Helmand province of the country.