Al Jazeera reporter to receive UGA honor

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) -- The University of Georgia's journalism school will give its McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage to a reporter for Al Jazeera who was jailed and interrogated for 19 days while covering the civil war in Syria.

UGA said in a statement that Dorothy Parvaz, who a reporter for Al Jazeera's English-language channel in Doha, Qatar, will receive the medal during a ceremony this fall.

Parvaz was jailed when she entered Syria in April 2011, held for three days, then deported to Iran, where she was held and interrogated an additional 16 days, before she was returned to Qatar.

The McGill Medal is named for Ralph McGill, the late editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution.