KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 — Activist and writer Jac Sm Kee will be awarded the 2016 Stieg Larsson prize for her work against online harassment and for equal access to information for all.
The scholar, who is among the founders of the Take Back the Tech global campaign against digital gender violence, will receive the award at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden on Monday.
“Jac Sm Kee is a pioneer in the fight for gender equality. Through her groundbreaking work for digital feminist mobilisation and against online harassment, she paves the way for a new wave of feminism.
“[She] represents a movement that fights for equality with integrity, self-confidence and curiosity — in the Global South as well as the Global North,” the jury said in a statement announcing the prize.
Kee heads the women’s rights programme at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), which works to prevent online violence against women, encourages web-based gender research, and advances women’s technological skills and knowledge.
She is also the co-founder of the Centre for Independent Journalism Malaysia (CIJ) and one of the founders of KRYSS, a group that supports the reproductive rights of young people in Malaysia.
The Stieg Larsson prize is named after the writer of the Millennium novel series that took the world by storm in mid-2000s; the author died in 2004.
The award was established by Swedish publishing house Norstedts and the novelist's family to honour individuals or groups that work in the spirit of Larsson, with an annual prize of SEK200,000 (RM94,000).
