TORONTO - Journalist Mohamed Fahmy is the recipient of this year's Freedom to Read award from the Writers' Union of Canada.

The union says Fahmy -- who spent more than a year in an Egypt prison -- was chosen for his advocacy on behalf of free expression in his coverage of the unrest around the 2011 Arab Spring-inspired protests.

Writers' union chairwoman Heather Menzies says the jury was unanimous in its decision.

Fahmy was released from an Egypt prison last fall after being arrested in 2013 alongside two Al-Jazeera English colleagues on terror-related charges.

He was sentenced to three years in prison in a retrial for airing what a court described as "false news" and coverage biased in favour of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The case was widely condemned.