International news broadcaster Al Jazeera has been awarded the Freedom of Speech and Expression Medal by the Roosevelt Foundation for its “longstanding efforts to provide independent, impartial news for an international audience”.

According to mediamughals.com the Middle East broadcaster is dedicating the award to journalists fallen in the line of duty, including Ali Hassan Al-Jaber, the Al Jazeera cameraman who was shot dead while filming the uprising in Libya in March 2011.

Al Jazeera's director general Ahmed bin Jassim Al-Thani will accept the award at a ceremony on 12 May 2012 in Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg, Netherlands in the presence of Queen Beatrix.

The Roosevelt Institute and the Roosevelt Stichting have awarded Four Freedoms medals each year since 1982 to individuals who exemplify the vision of the Four Freedoms that President Roosevelt outlined in his famous 6 January 1941 speech.

Previous winners of Freedoms Medals have included Nelson Mandela, J. William Fulbright, Arthur Miller, Desmond Tutu, Terry Waite, Jimmy Carter and John F Kennedy.