Ilze Jaunalksne

Ilze Jaunalksne (born November 19, 1976 in Jūrmala) is a Latvian journalist and was an anchor for the current affairs program De Facto. In March 2006 on De Facto, she broke the story of Latvian national political leaders from various different parties buying votes. Her reporting on this caused a minister to be forced to resign, and some high-ranking political figures to be indicted. In retaliation, her phone was illegally tapped and transcripts of her conversations released to the media by her opponents in the government. In response to this invasion of her privacy, Jaunalksne took the government to court for defamation of character, which was the first such case in Latvia. She won, with the Latvian Financial Police being ordered to pay her 100,000 lats ($187,000) in damages for illegally recording her calls and making the transcripts public, and the Finance Ministry and State Revenue Service being found guilty of invading her privacy. She received a 2007 International Women of Courage award. However, she could not attend the ceremonies since she was about to give birth.