December 21, 2024

 
 

Panelists Discuss Risks of Global Disinformation Campaigns

With polls and political soothsayers predicting another close U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, analysts and government officials are raising alarms about the role of foreign interference....

[MORE]Image via Zoom
 

Panelists Discuss Rising Global Populism at the American Library in Paris

OPC member Vivienne Walt, a Paris correspondent for TIME and FORTUNE magazines, said during a panel on global populism at the American Library in Paris on Sept. 18 that “it’s safe to say we’re in a bit of a perilous moment, politically,”...

[MORE]Image via YouTube
 

Filmmakers Discuss Documentary on Yazidi Genocide After ‘Mediha’ Screening

A young Yazidi woman who was the central figure of a documentary received a standing ovation after its screening at the Film Forum in New York on Oct. 11...

[MORE]Photo: Chad Bouchard
 

Recap and video: 85th OPC Awards

The 85th OPC Awards featured speeches and stories from recipients receiving this year’s 22 awards for exceptional international journalism....

[MORE]Photo: Jennifer Altman
 
 

Researchers Discuss AP’s Coverage of Nazi Germany in ‘Newshawks of Berlin’

The OPC held a book night on March 13 to feature Newshawks in Berlin by Larry Heinzerling and Randy Herschaft with Ann Cooper...

[MORE]Image via Zoom
 

OPC at a Glance

Learn about the OPC's activities and mission, with testimonials and clips from past events, in this introductory video....[MORE]

Press Freedom

Iranian Cartoonist Released After 8 Months in Prison

Iranian Cartoonist Released After 8 Months in Prison

OPC Past President David A. Andelman writes about the recent release of Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani, who had been jailed at the infamous Evin prison since her arrest in April. Andelman has been covering her case and the international campaign to free her on his Substack, Andelman Unleashed...

Event Recap

Journalists Discuss Unrest in Georgia

Journalists Discuss Unrest in Georgia

Journalists covering upheaval in Georgia said during a Dec. 13 panel that police are targeting journalists as well as protesters, and norms of press freedom have shifted suddenly in recent weeks...

Event Recap

Edward Wong Discusses His Family’s Saga from China to US in ‘At the Edge of Empire’

Edward Wong Discusses His Family’s Saga from China to US in ‘At the Edge of Empire’

Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times, shared photos and stories about his father’s past life in China that he seldom spoke about, during an OPC event on Dec. 10. Wong’s father’s story started in post-World War II China, wending through his service in the Chinese Army and flight during the Cultural Revolution, ultimately landing in Washington, DC...

OPC Awards

2024 OPC Awards - Call For Entries

2024 OPC Awards - Call For Entries

We invite you to submit entries for international coverage in Newspapers, News Services, Newsletters, Digital, Magazines, Radio, Podcasts, Television, Video, Cartoons, Books and Photography...

Event Recap

Journalists Discuss US Election at the American Library in Paris

Journalists Discuss US Election at the American Library in Paris

The OPC and the American Library in Paris on Dec. 3 convened a panel of French and American journalists for an autopsy of the U.S. election in November, to discuss factors leading to President-Elect Donald Trump’s victory in November and what it means for for his coming term...

Press Freedom

OPC Condemns Saudi Arabia's Jailing of Cartoonist for Political Speech

OPC Condemns Saudi Arabia's Jailing of Cartoonist for Political Speech

The OPC strongly condemns the government of Saudi Arabia's 23-year prison sentence of cartoonist Mohammed al-Ghamdi, who draws under the pen name of Al-Hazza, for expressing himself via his cartoons...

Event Recap

Filmmakers Discuss Documentary on Yazidi Genocide After ‘Mediha’ Screening at Film Forum

Filmmakers Discuss Documentary on Yazidi Genocide After ‘Mediha’ Screening at Film Forum

A young Yazidi woman who was the central figure of a documentary received a standing ovation after its screening at the Film Forum in New York starting on Oct. 11...

Event Recap

Panelists Discuss Risks of Global Disinformation Campaigns Ahead of the US Election

Panelists Discuss Risks of Global Disinformation Campaigns Ahead of the US Election

With polls and political soothsayers predicting another close U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, analysts and government officials are raising alarms about the role of foreign interference, as countries ramp up disinformation campaigns to sway a sharply divided electorate...

Event Recap

Panelists Discuss Rising Global Populism at the American Library in Paris

Panelists Discuss Rising Global Populism at the American Library in Paris

OPC member Vivienne Walt, a Paris correspondent for TIME and FORTUNE magazines, said during a panel on global populism at the American Library in Paris on Sept. 18 that “it’s safe to say we’re in a bit of a perilous moment, politically,” particularly in the U.S., but warned those living in Europe to be vigilant...

Press Freedom

OPC Condemns Israeli Raid on Al Jazeera Offices

OPC Condemns Israeli Raid on Al Jazeera Offices

The OPC strongly condemns the Israeli military’s recent raid upon the Ramallah bureau offices of Al Jazeera, confiscating documents and removing journalists from the newsroom. According to news reports, the Israeli military ordered that the office be closed for 45 days, saying that the news organization was “being used to incite terror.”

OPC

Scott Kraft Re-elected President of the Overseas Press Club of America

Scott Kraft Re-elected President of the Overseas Press Club of America

The Overseas Press Club of America elected Scott Kraft, editor at large for enterprise journalism and special projects for the Los Angeles Times, to a second term as president...

Press Freedom

OPC Condemns Hong Kong Convictions of 'Stand News' Editors

OPC Condemns Hong Kong Convictions of 'Stand News' Editors

The Overseas Press Club of America condemns the guilty verdicts in Hong Kong of two former editors-in-chief of Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, on charges of sedition. A Hong Kong court has found the editors, arrested in December 2021, guilty on charges of publishing and reproducing seditious publications. The conviction is part of a crackdown on news publications in Hong Kong since an opaque National Security Law went into effect in mid-2020...

People Remembered

People Remembered: Robert C. Neff

People Remembered: Robert C. Neff

Robert C. Neff, who was at the center of America’s debate about a rapidly rising Japan in the late 1980s, died on July 31 at his home in Hayama, Japan, south of Tokyo, after a long illness. He was 77 years old...

Press Freedom

OPC Celebrates Release of Jailed Journalists in Russia

OPC Celebrates Release of Jailed Journalists in Russia

The Overseas Press Club of America is thrilled with the news that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been freed from a Russian prison where he was unjustly held after being wrongly convicted of spying charges. Along with Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, among others, Gershkovich is being released as part of a prisoner swap...

Event Recap

OPC Hosts Session on How to Make the Most of Muck Rack

OPC Hosts Session on How to Make the Most of Muck Rack

On July 23, the OPC hosted a training session with Andrew Mercier, senior director of editorial at Muck Rack, who walked participants through steps for setting up a profile on the platform, getting verified, and curating links to their work. He also covered filters to help track coverage from competitors and analyze news topics...

Event Recap

AP Journalists Discuss 2-Year Investigation Into Deadly Ocean Voyages of Migrants

AP Journalists Discuss 2-Year Investigation Into Deadly Ocean Voyages of Migrants

Associated Press visual journalists Renata Brito and Felipe Dana were shocked when they first stumbled on a local news story in May 2021 about a small boat that had turned up in Trinidad and Tobago with the decomposing bodies of more than a dozen men. Having reported extensively on global migration issues, they noticed that the type of boat shown in the story was one they had often seen migrants use to cross from Mauritania to Spain...

People

OPC Celebrates Patricia Kranz's Tenth Anniversary as Executive Director

OPC Celebrates Patricia Kranz's Tenth Anniversary as Executive Director

On June 7, a group of current and past OPC governors and presidents gathered at Hutong in Midtown to celebrate Patricia Kranz’s 10th anniversary as executive director of the club...

Event Recap

Jacob Kushner Discusses Resurgence of Far-right Violence in Germany in ‘Look Away’

Jacob Kushner Discusses Resurgence of Far-right Violence in Germany in ‘Look Away’

Before OPC member and author Jacob Kushner started research for his new book, Look Away: A True Story of Murders, Bombings, and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants, the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall had mostly evoked images of celebration and families reuniting in the streets...

Event Recap

Panelists Discuss Latin American Missionaries in 'Soul by Soul' by Adriana Carranca

Panelists Discuss Latin American Missionaries in 'Soul by Soul' by Adriana Carranca

Brazilian journalist Adriana Carranca, an OPC member who received the OPC Foundation’s 2018 Harper’s Magazine Scholarship in Memory of I.F. Stone, stumbled into an unusual story during a reporting trip to Afghanistan in 2008 when she learned that a couple from her home country was running a pizza delivery business in Kabul. She wondered why a couple with two children would relocate to one of the most dangerous places in the world to make pizza. After some digging, she discovered the two were operating covertly as Christian missionaries, trying to convert Afghans in the face of extreme risks....

Book Review

Nicholas Kristof Traces His Road to Journalism in 'Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life'

Nicholas Kristof Traces His Road to Journalism in 'Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life'

If you have ever wondered what motivates a journalist such as Nick Kristof to travel to hellholes such as the Sudan’s Darfur region, Myanamar and Yemen, or to ride his bicycle into the middle of the Chinese army’s crushing of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989, then you will be intrigued with Kristof’s latest book, Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life...

People Remembered

Video: Watch the Memorial for Terry Anderson at the AP

Video: Watch the Memorial for Terry Anderson at the AP

Watch a celebration of Terry Anderson's life, held at the Associated Press headquarters on May 8.

Press Freedom

World Press Freedom Day: OPC Names 'Continuing Coverage of Conflict' Award for Slain Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

World Press Freedom Day: OPC Names 'Continuing Coverage of Conflict' Award for Slain Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

On World Press Freedom Day, the Overseas Press Club board of governors announced that it is naming the Continuing Coverage of Conflict Award, a new category created in 2024 to honor deep, dedicated reporting that sustains focus on underreported conflicts and global crises, after Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American journalist who was killed during assignment in 2022...

OPC Awards

Photos and Video From the 85th OPC Awards

The OPC’s 85th Anniversary Awards Dinner featured a keynote speech from Maria Ressa, the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner and CEO of the Philippine digital media company Rappler, presentation of the President’s Award to David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, lighting of the Press Freedom Candle by Ayman Mohyeldin, host of MSNBC’s “Ayman," and acceptance speeches from recipients receiving this year’s 22 awards for exceptional international journalism. Explore the page below to see photos and videos from the celebration...

OPC Awards

OPC Awards Dinner Honors Courageous Reporting, Including Coverage of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine

OPC Awards Dinner Honors Courageous Reporting, Including Coverage of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine

On April 25, international correspondents and their colleagues gathered for the Overseas Press Club America’s Annual Awards Dinner at Cipriani 25 Broadway to honor courageous reporting that shed light on the realities of conflict, survival, and resilience from around the world. The evening marked with recognition for the brave journalists who embarked on a dangerous mission to cover the wars plaguing the international community, from Gaza and Ukraine and Sudan...

OPC Awards

85th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards

85th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards

85th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards Honors the Finest International Reporting in 22 Categories; New York Times, Reuters Are Top Winners.

Event Recap

Researchers Discuss AP’s Coverage of Nazi Germany in ‘Newshawks of Berlin’

Researchers Discuss AP’s Coverage of Nazi Germany in ‘Newshawks of Berlin’

The OPC held a book night on March 13 to feature Newshawks in Berlin by Larry Heinzerling and Randy Herschaft with Ann Cooper. The book delves into The Associated Press' editorial decisions and reporting on Nazi Germany, spanning from its inception in the 1930s to the post-World War II era...

OPC Foundation

OPC Foundation Honors 2024 Scholars at Evening Reception

OPC Foundation Honors 2024 Scholars at Evening Reception

On March 5, OPC Foundation President John Daniszewski opened this year’s scholarship awards celebration, his first time presiding over the event since he took the helm last year. He addressed the crowd of family, friends and supporters who gathered to honor 18 journalists chosen by judges to be among the best of their generation...

OPC Awards Dinner

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Will Be Keynote Speaker at OPC's 2024 Awards Dinner; President's Award Goes to David Remnick of The New Yorker

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Will Be Keynote Speaker at OPC's 2024 Awards Dinner; President's Award Goes to David Remnick of The New Yorker

Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Rappler, and winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, will be the keynote speaker at the OPC’s 85th Annual Awards Dinner on April 25 at Cipriani 25 Broadway. David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for his book Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, will receive the President’s Award for lifetime achievement...

Event Recap

Authors Discuss Press Suppression in Russia's Past and Present

Authors Discuss Press Suppression in Russia's Past and Present

On Feb. 29, the OPC hosted a book night with two authors whose books detail Russia’s repressive tactics in two different eras. Alan Philps, a former Moscow correspondent for Reuters and the Daily Telegraph, wrote The Red Hotel: Moscow 1941, the Metropol Hotel, and the Untold Story of Stalin’s Propaganda War...

OPC Members

People Remembered: Robert Black

People Remembered: Robert Black

Robert Black, a longtime OPC member with a distinguished career in journalism and public relations, died on Feb. 4 from complications related to Covid. He was 94 years old.

Event Recap

Author Yaroslav Trofimov Discusses Need for 'Humanity' in Covering Russia's Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence

Author Yaroslav Trofimov Discusses Need for 'Humanity' in Covering Russia's Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence

On Jan. 24, author Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, told a capacity crowd at Columbia University’s Simon and June Li Center for Global Journalism that reporters working in conflict zones should not so distracted by geopolitics that they neglect humanity in their work...

OPC History

Longtime Members Mark 50 Years or More with the OPC

Longtime Members Mark 50 Years or More with the OPC

Late last year, OPC member Andrew Lluberes mentioned that 2024 would mark his 50th year since joining the OPC, and wondered if there were others who had earned the same distinction. After poking around in OPC archives, we reached out to Lluberes and four other members who had passed the 5-decade mark and asked them to reflect on their careers and time with the OPC. Many thanks to Lluberes, as well as Robert Essman, Irwin Chapman, Virginia Widenmyer and Robert Black for sharing memories...

OPC Awards

OPC Renames Feature Photography and Interpretation of International Affairs Awards To Honor Danish Siddiqui and William Worthy; Adds New Category for Continuing Coverage of Conflict

OPC Renames Feature Photography and Interpretation of International Affairs Awards To Honor Danish Siddiqui and William Worthy; Adds New Category for Continuing Coverage of Conflict

The Overseas Press Club board of governors has approved several changes to its prestigious, 84-year-old awards, expanding the universe of journalists it honors when it places their names on awards for coverage of international news and adding a new category to recognize continuous coverage of conflicts around the world...

Press Freedom

OPC Condemns Violence and Threats Against Journalists Covering the Israel-Hamas War

OPC Condemns Violence and Threats Against Journalists Covering the Israel-Hamas War

The Overseas Press Club of America expresses its shock and outrage at the deaths of journalists covering the Israel-Hamas War.

Event Recap

Former Correspondent Discusses Memoir and Battle with PTSD

Former Correspondent Discusses Memoir and Battle with PTSD

After years of reporting on some of the world’s worst violence and disasters, it took former Reuters journalist Dean Yates a long time to fully realize the toll these experiences had taken on his mental health....

Event Recap

Journalists Share Techniques to Engage Audiences on Climate Change

Journalists Share Techniques to Engage Audiences on Climate Change

Veteran climate reporters at an OPC panel on Nov. 2 shared key techniques on how to avoid “climate fatigue” for readers and audiences. This year’s climate news has included wildfires in Maui, record-breaking heatwaves, historically low ice coverage in the Antarctic, and wildfire smoke from Canada that choked states across the eastern U.S...

Event Recap

Jane Ferguson Discusses Success and Risk in Her Career as War Correspondent

Jane Ferguson Discusses Success and Risk in Her Career as War Correspondent

On Oct. 19, Award-winning international correspondent Jane Ferguson joined an OPC program to discuss the book with Elizabeth Becker, an award-winning correspondent and author whose career spans four decades, including coverage of Cambodia during the Vietnam War...

Event Recap

How I Did It: Filmmakers Discuss 'The Night Doctrine' After Screening

How I Did It: Filmmakers Discuss 'The Night Doctrine' After Screening

Freelance journalist Lynzy Billing traveled to Afghanistan at the beginning of 2019 without a clear reporting plan – she was just looking for answers to questions about what had happened to her mother and sister, who were killed during a night raid nearly three decades ago. That story led her on four-year journey in which she uncovered CIA-backed night raids that killed hundreds of Afghan civilians with no accountability...

Event Recap

Panelists Discuss Race in France at the American Library in Paris

Panelists Discuss Race in France at the American Library in Paris

A diverse group of four journalists and one academic gathered at the American Library in Paris on Oct. 3 to discuss race in France and place recent events in context...

OPC History

Hungarian National Museum to Display OPC Award Winner John Sadovy’s 1956 Photographs

Hungarian National Museum to Display OPC Award Winner John Sadovy’s 1956 Photographs

In 1956, photojournalist John Sadovy won the OPC's Robert Capa Award for his coverage of the Hungarian Revolution. Those photographs will be displayed at an exhibition later this month at the Hungarian National Museum. This piece, written by his daughter, reflects on the personal and international importance of those images...

Training

OPC and Dart Center Host Training on Stress, Burnout and Trauma

OPC and Dart Center Host Training on Stress, Burnout and Trauma

On Sept. 13, the OPC and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma hosted a training session on coping with stress, burnout and trauma on the job...

Event Recap

‘Battlefield Cyber’ Authors Urge More Cooperation to Thwart Digital Attacks

‘Battlefield Cyber’ Authors Urge More Cooperation to Thwart Digital Attacks

The co-authors of a new book on international cyber warfare told an OPC audience on Sept. 20 that shortcomings in computer security and digital literacy have left Americans vulnerable to attacks, intrusion and manipulation from countries with sophisticated cyber systems such as China and Russia...

OPC Board of Governors

OPC President Scott Kraft Welcomes New Governors

OPC President Scott Kraft Welcomes New Governors

The Overseas Press Club of America elected seven new governors to its board at the club’s annual meeting tonight. Members also voted to re-elect five journalists or media professionals who have served on the board for the past two years...

Press Freedom

Cyberattack on IPI: Evidence Points to Retaliation for Press Freedom Work in Hungary

Cyberattack on IPI: Evidence Points to Retaliation for Press Freedom Work in Hungary

The International Press Institute (IPI) said in a statement that since Sept. 1, the organization has been battling "a targeted and sustained cyberattack" that seems to be retaliation for advocacy work on behalf of independent media in Hungary, amid a spate of similar attacks since this summer...

Press Freedom

OPC and 21 Organizations Call for an End to Russian War Crimes Against Journalists in Ukraine

OPC and 21 Organizations Call for an End to Russian War Crimes Against Journalists in Ukraine

We, the undersigned journalists, press freedom organizations, and unions, write this statement to denounce the war crimes committed by the Russian Federation against journalists in Ukraine and to call for immediate action to hold the perpetrators accountable...

Event Recap

OPC and IWMF Hosted Psychological Safety Training for Women and Nonbinary Journalists

OPC and IWMF Hosted Psychological Safety Training for Women and Nonbinary Journalists

Ana Zellhuber, a psychoanalyst and Emergency Psychology specialist based in Mexico City, for the second time this year held a psychological training session for the OPC, this time with a focus on particular challenges facing women, nonbinary journalists and their allies...

OPC History

OPC Digital Archives Help Uncover Lost Family History

OPC Digital Archives Help Uncover Lost Family History

The OPC recently received a letter of thanks from a man who used the OPC's digital archives to research his own family background. We hope you enjoy reading his account and find the story as moving as we have. It is a testament to the importance of the OPC's digital archives as a tool for researchers as well as a chronicle of club history...

Press Freedom

Under Threat: CFWIJ Report Shows 145 Women Journalists Attacked in 1st Quarter of 2023

Under Threat: CFWIJ Report Shows 145 Women Journalists Attacked in 1st Quarter of 2023

The CFWIJ has published its first quarterly report documenting press freedom violations against women and LGBTQI journalists. 

Event Recap

Overseas Press Club Annual Awards Dinner Honors Journalists Around the World and Spotlights Coverage of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Overseas Press Club Annual Awards Dinner Honors Journalists Around the World and Spotlights Coverage of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

International correspondents gathered in New York City for the Overseas Press Club of America’s 84th annual awards dinner on April 27 to celebrate and honor brave journalists whose reporting brought to light stories of conflict, controversy, and resilience from around the world this past year...

OPC Awards

Photos and Video From the 84th OPC Awards

Photos and Video From the 84th OPC Awards

The OPC's 84th Anniversary Awards Dinner featured a keynote speech from Alessandra Galloni, editor-in-chief for Reuters, presentation of the President's Award to Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, lighting of the Press Freedom Candle by Oksana Markarova, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, remarks about Evan Gershkovich from Almar Latour, the chief executive officer of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and acceptance speeches from recipients receiving this year's 22 awards for exceptional international journalism...

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients: Simpa Sampson

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients: Simpa Sampson

Simpa Sampson, a freelance videographer who was part of the Bloomberg team that received a Citation for Excellence in the Morton Frank category this year, did not set out to specialize in covering conflict, but career and opportunity nudged him in that direction...

Press Freedom

OPC Calls for Release of Jailed Journalists to Mark World Press Freedom Day

OPC Calls for Release of Jailed Journalists to Mark World Press Freedom Day

On World Press Freedom Day, the Overseas Press Club of America renews its call for the release of journalists around the world who have been unfairly detained, imprisoned and sentenced to incarceration simply for doing their jobs as journalists and exposing information that governments would prefer to keep secret...

Press Freedom

Andrzej Poczobut and Mortaza Behboudi Receive IAPC Freedom of Speech Award 2023

Andrzej Poczobut and Mortaza Behboudi Receive IAPC Freedom of Speech Award 2023

Members of the International Association of Press Clubs (IAPC) – representatives of dozens of press clubs from around the world – presented the IAPC Freedom of Speech Award 2023 to Andrzej Poczobut and Mortaza Behboudi, two journalists imprisoned by authoritarian regimes...

Awards Annoucement

84th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards

84th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards

84th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards Honors the Finest International Reporting in 22 Categories; The New York Times Leads Winners for the Fifth Straight Year; CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Receives OPC President’s Award..

Press Freedom

OPC Condemns Russia’s Arrest of Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich

OPC Condemns Russia’s Arrest of Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich

The Overseas Press Club of America strongly condemns and expresses its deep concern over the press freedom implications of the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia for alleged espionage...

Event Recap

Former CNN Correspondent Mike Chinoy: 'China Changed' Under Xi Jinping

Former CNN Correspondent Mike Chinoy: 'China Changed' Under Xi Jinping

Mike Chinoy, the CNN correspondent who has dedicated 25 years to covering China, including the brutal crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, defended the American and Western media’s coverage of China despite the Chinese government’s rhetoric that the media is seeking to foment “color revolutions” and topple the Chinese Communist Party...

Event Recap

Washington Post Photographer Salwan Georges Recounts Return to Iraq after Two Decades

Washington Post Photographer Salwan Georges Recounts Return to Iraq after Two Decades

When Washington Post staff photographer Salwan Georges fled Iraq with his family in 1998 at the age of 8, he did not expect he would be away from those he left behind for more than two decades, and did not expect conditions to be worse, in many ways, than they were before the war...

Event Recap

Journalists Discuss Challenges and Complexity in Covering Unrest in Peru

Journalists Discuss Challenges and Complexity in Covering Unrest in Peru

Blocked roads, stopped trains and rising hostility toward journalists have been among the biggest challenges for correspondents covering unrest in Peru in recent months, panelists said during an OPC discussion on March 9...

Event Recap

OPC Foundation Honors 2023 Scholars at Evening Reception

OPC Foundation Honors 2023 Scholars at Evening Reception

OPC Foundation President William J. Holstein opened this year’s scholarship awards celebration on May 1, the first to be held in person since February 2020, by commending the foundation’s continued support for aspiring international journalists through the challenges of the pandemic...

Event Recap

OPC and IWMF Host Psychological Safety and Resilience Training

OPC and IWMF Host Psychological Safety and Resilience Training

Ana Zellhuber, a psychoanalyst and Emergency Psychology specialist based in Mexico City, warned journalists during a program on March 2 that while it’s very easy to avoid taking care of your mental and emotional health, the cost of doing so is very high...

Press Freedom

OPC Joins Press Freedom Groups Calling for Bangladesh to Stop Harassment of Rozina Islam

OPC Joins Press Freedom Groups Calling for Bangladesh to Stop Harassment of Rozina Islam

Dear Ministers Khan and Maleque - We, the undersigned press freedom and human rights groups, write to seek your leadership in ensuring an immediate end to the harassment of Bangladeshi journalist and human rights defender Rozina Islam...

Event Recap

'In the Thick of It': Ukrainian Journalists Reflect on a Year of Struggle

'In the Thick of It': Ukrainian Journalists Reflect on a Year of Struggle

A common plea for international media emerged from three Ukrainian journalists during an OPC program on Feb. 22: please don’t forget this war. The program, part of the club’s “In the Thick of It” series, are among last year’s 18 recipients of OPC grants of $2,000 each to Ukrainian journalists struggling to continue their work under dire conditions...

Event Recap

'How I Did It': Anand Gopal Shares Insights on Award-Winning Work

'How I Did It': Anand Gopal Shares Insights on Award-Winning Work

On Feb. 15, the OPC hosted a program with Anand Gopal, a four-time OPC Award winner and a club member who is currently a writer for The New Yorker magazine, in conversation with his former editor Christopher Cox, as the two revealed insights about their process of working together, the elements of a strong pitch, safety concerns and other reporting issues...

Event Recap

Michelle Shephard Discusses Her Ethical Dilemmas in Making ‘The Perfect Story’

Michelle Shephard Discusses Her Ethical Dilemmas in Making ‘The Perfect Story’

Filmmaker Michelle Shephard discussed thorny ethical quandaries following a screening of 'The Perfect Story' hosted by the OPC in Toronto on Feb. 2...

Event Recap

OPC Launches ‘In the Thick of It’ Series With Discussion on Challenges in Haiti

OPC Launches ‘In the Thick of It’ Series With Discussion on Challenges in Haiti

On Jan. 26, while Haiti was still reeling from the killing of six police officers the day before, the OPC hosted its inaugural "In the Tick of It" program with reporters who have been covering turmoil in Haiti over the past year...

How I Did It

‘How I Did It’: Marcus Yam Discusses Covering Global Conflict for the LA Times

‘How I Did It’: Marcus Yam Discusses Covering Global Conflict for the LA Times

On Jan. 12, the OPC hosted a discussion with Marcus Yam, a roving Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent and staff photographer...

OPC Grants

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients: Bhat Burhan

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients: Bhat Burhan

Bhat Burhan, a Kashmiri multimedia journalist now based in New Delhi, grew up in a region steeped in decades of armed conflict. Inspired by the dedication of local journalists covering the conflicts in the face of government crackdowns, he saw a need for reporting in Kashmir by Kashmiris.

Event Recap

Afghan Journalists Reflect on Media After Taliban Rule and Lack of International Attention

Afghan Journalists Reflect on Media After Taliban Rule and Lack of International Attention

Three Afghan journalists working outside the country before or during the Taliban takeover last year told an OPC audience on Dec. 13 that they are still fighting to tell stories of hope and despair about Afghanistan despite flagging interest from international media...

OPC Grant Recipients

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients: Jill Langlois

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients: Jill Langlois

There are at least two reasons OPC member Jill Langlois seemed bound for a life in journalism from a very early age...

Event Recap

New York Times Reporters Discuss Covering China’s Expanding Surveillance State in Latest ‘How I Did It’ Program

New York Times Reporters Discuss Covering China’s Expanding Surveillance State in Latest ‘How I Did It’ Program

For New York Times reporters Muyi Xiao and Paul Mozur, an updated version of the old journalists’ creed “follow the money” is to “follow the data.” Particularly when covering a country like China where on-the-ground coverage is risky and difficult, the two said during an OPC program on Nov. 30, reporters must rely on data and other digital sources accessible from outside territorial borders...

OPC Grants

Overseas Press Club Awards $2,000 Grants to 18 Journalists in Ukraine

Overseas Press Club Awards $2,000 Grants to 18 Journalists in Ukraine

The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) announced today that it has begun distributing 18 grants of $2,000 each to journalists who are struggling to continue their essential work under dire conditions in Ukraine. Sony Electronics Inc. kickstarted the fund with a $25,000 donation. OPC members and friends also contributed...

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients: Elisabetta Zavoli

Spotlight on OPC Grant Recipients: Elisabetta Zavoli

When Elisabetta Zavoli, an OPC member, grant recipient and documentary photographer born in Italy, embarked on her investigative journey, it was not amid the bustle of busy newsrooms or the rush of reporting in the field, it was in muted chemistry laboratories and photography darkrooms...

Press Freedom

Overseas Press Club Condemns Violent Treatment of Journalists Amid Protest Coverage

Overseas Press Club Condemns Violent Treatment of Journalists Amid Protest Coverage

The Overseas Press Club of America on Tuesday condemned the violent treatment of several Western journalists covering anti-lockdown protests in Shanghai. The group has long supported the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China and others protesting the expulsion of foreign journalists and harassment campaigns that have led at least one family, that of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) correspondent John Sudworth, to flee the country...

Event Recap

OPC and Dart Center Host Training Session on Psychological Safety and Resilience

OPC and Dart Center Host Training Session on Psychological Safety and Resilience

Like many other professions, journalists face trauma during the course of their work. Their jobs often entail witnessing and processing the human costs of war, natural disasters or other humanitarian crises while on assignment...

Event Recap

Christopher Roush Laments Decline of Local Business News in New Book

Christopher Roush Laments Decline of Local Business News in New Book

Christopher Roush, veteran business journalist, author, and dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University, said during an OPC book night on Oct. 11 that the decline of local business news coverage across the U.S. has left consumers, small businesses owners and employees starved for reliable sources of information they need to make key decisions such as when to buy a house or where to expand a business...

Press Freedom

Seeds of New Ideas to Help Journalists Deal with Emotional Trauma

Seeds of New Ideas to Help Journalists Deal with Emotional Trauma

News organizations, journalism schools, safety trainers and non-profits around the world are coming with new ideas for how to help journalists prepare to cover difficult stories and then recover emotionally and mentally afterward. But those efforts are still in the early stages and suffer from a relative lack of coordination. Those were the takeaways from a meeting of more than 100 journalists and non-profit representatives organized by the A Culture of Safety (ACOS) Alliance in New York Oct. 3 to 5...

Event Recap

'How I Did It': New York Times Team Shares Insight About Investigations into Airstrike Casualties

'How I Did It': New York Times Team Shares Insight About Investigations into Airstrike Casualties

OPC Vice President Azmat Khan spent five years gathering string for an award-winning investigation that exposed the full scale of civilian tolls from U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. But she told guests at Columbia University on Sept. 13 that conviction, strategy and a well-researched pitch would help students find publishers for any good story idea...

People Remembered

People Remembered: William Rukeyser

People Remembered: William Rukeyser

William Rukeyser, who founded Money magazine and served as managing editor of Fortune, died Aug. 16 in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the age of 83. The cause was lung cancer, his wife of 58 years, Elisabeth, said.

Press Freedom

Online Campaigns Represent a Profound Challenge to the Media

Online Campaigns Represent a Profound Challenge to the Media

Mainstream media organizations around the world – including America’s most powerful newspapers – are experiencing a surge of coordinated social media attacks against their journalists aimed at discrediting or intimidating them. The attacks, combined with efforts by authoritarian governments to control information flows and paint media organizations as purveyors of “fake news,” are so severe that many editors are worried that the very legitimacy of their organizations is being destroyed. The campaigns are overwhelmingly aimed at female journalists. And the industry has little idea what to do about any of it...

Board of Governors

Scott Kraft Elected President of the Overseas Press Club of America

Scott Kraft Elected President of the Overseas Press Club of America

The Overseas Press Club of America, an 83-year-old organization that awards highly coveted prizes devoted to international news coverage for an American audience, elected a new president Tuesday night. Scott Kraft, editor at large for enterprise journalism and special projects at the Los Angeles Times, was elected president of the OPC, as the club is widely known...

OPC Archives

OPC Bulletin and Dateline Magazine Are Now Available on Archive.org

OPC Bulletin and Dateline Magazine Are Now Available on Archive.org

In the fall of 2019, I was asked to talk about the OPC’s history to recently elected governors. On the shelves next to my desk were OPC Bulletins dating back to 1945 and Dateline magazines from 1958 to the present. The Bulletins were particularly interesting to me because they were published once a week for decades and gave a detailed description of the club’s programs, parties, and periodic controversies...

OPC Grants

Applications are Open for Overseas Press Club of America Grants to Ukrainian Journalists

Applications are Open for Overseas Press Club of America Grants to Ukrainian Journalists

The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) is pleased to announce that it will award a limited number of grants in cash or photographic/video equipment to Ukraine journalists working in any medium whose livelihood or ability to pursue his or her profession has been adversely impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Press Freedom

Press Freedom Organizations Raise Alarm About Threats to Journalists in Dominican Republic and Central Romana

Press Freedom Organizations Raise Alarm About Threats to Journalists in Dominican Republic and Central Romana

"We are a group of news and press advocacy organizations in the United States that have previously worked with or assisted a journalist who has previously provided reporting on Central Romana. We write to notify you about some alarming information we have received over the past year, involving threats made to this reporter and ask for your cooperation with this matter."

Member News

New Book by Jaime FlorCruz Recounts 50 Years in China

New Book by Jaime FlorCruz Recounts 50 Years in China

Longtime OPC member Jaime FlorCruz visited New York in late July, gathering with a group of club members at the Bryant Park Café to chat about his new book, "The Class of ’77: How My Classmates Changed China", and to toast the efforts of OPC President Paula Dwyer and Executive Director Patricia Kranz in guiding the club through two years of the pandemic. Below is a review of FlorCruz’s book by OPC Past President William J. Holstein, who also attended the gathering...

Annual Meeting

OPC Annual Meeting Sept. 6

OPC Annual Meeting Sept. 6

The OPC Annual Meeting, open to all members in good standing, will be held online on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time via Zoom.

Press Freedom

FCCHK Expresses Concern Over Press Restrictions

FCCHK Expresses Concern Over Press Restrictions

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong (FCCCHK) has expressed deep concern about restrictions against some media organizations from covering the inauguration of Chief Executive-designate John Lee and the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China...

Event Recap

'How I Did It': Morton Frank Award Winners Give Advice on Collaboration and Security During Program on Sugar Story

'How I Did It': Morton Frank Award Winners Give Advice on Collaboration and Security During Program on Sugar Story

On June 23, reporters Sandy Tolan and Euclides Cordero Nuel joined editor and producer Michael Montgomery to discuss behind-the-scenes insights about their project, “The Bitter Work Behind Sugar,” produced for Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting...

Membership

Club Quarters Announces 10 Percent Discount on Room Rates for OPC Members

Club Quarters Announces 10 Percent Discount on Room Rates for OPC Members

Club Quarters has launched a special program for members of the Overseas Press Club of America and their family and friends. They have created a special link for OPC members to book rooms that automatically deducts 10% from the best available rates at that time...

Event Recap

OPC Best Cartoon Award Winners Discuss Creative Process and Misconceptions About Their Work

OPC Best Cartoon Award Winners Discuss Creative Process and Misconceptions About Their Work

Political cartoonists who are past winners of the OPC’s Best Cartoon awards discussed their creative process, their personal “red lines,” and misconceptions of their work during panel hosted by the OPC on May 19...

Event Recap

OPC Foundation Honors ‘Exceptionally Talented’ 2022 Scholars

OPC Foundation Honors ‘Exceptionally Talented’ 2022 Scholars

During the OPC Foundation’s online scholarship awards celebration on May 11, Bill Holstein, the president of the foundation, hailed the talent and tenacity of this year’s 17 winners, who are facing “enormous challenges” in the early stages of their careers amid uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic...

Press Freedom

OPC Shows Solidarity with Kyiv Press Club

OPC Shows Solidarity with Kyiv Press Club

The Overseas Press Club of America is posting the “We are Kyiv Press Club” emblem in solidarity with our Ukrainian colleagues....

Event Recap

Iranian Filmmaker Gelareh Kiazand Discusses Creative Process With VICE Team

Iranian Filmmaker Gelareh Kiazand Discusses Creative Process With VICE Team

Freelancers and documentary filmmakers wishing to pitch stories to VICE News should use Gelareh Kiazand’s recent series on women in Iran as a “model” for the kind of storytelling producers want to see, panelists said during an OPC discussion on May 4...

Press Freedom

OPC Supports Journalists Facing Challenges on World Press Freedom Day

OPC Supports Journalists Facing Challenges on World Press Freedom Day

The Overseas Press Club of America is honored to join with colleagues at press clubs around the world in recognizing World Press Freedom Day. We would like to take the opportunity to highlight the grave responsibility we have to support journalists who face significant challenges as they go about their work...

OPC Awards

Photos and Video From the 83rd OPC Awards

Photos and Video From the 83rd OPC Awards

The 83rd OPC Awards featured speeches and stories from recipients receiving this year's 22 awards for exceptional international journalism...

Event Recap

OPC Awards Dinner Highlights Journalists’ Exceptional Work in the Face of Threats and Risks

OPC Awards Dinner Highlights Journalists’ Exceptional Work in the Face of Threats and Risks

Foreign correspondents gathered on April 21 to honor the best in international journalism after a turbulent year that brought the growing threats to democracy – and the profound risks faced by those who cover them – into sharp relief...

OPC Awards

Overseas Press Club of America Announces Annual Award Winners

Overseas Press Club of America Announces Annual Award Winners

Afghanistan’s collapse, rising military violence and the ongoing plight of migrants emerged as the leading storylines among winners of the 83rd Annual Overseas Press Club Awards...

OPC Grants

Overseas Press Club Issues Second Tranche of Afghan Journalist Grants

Overseas Press Club Issues Second Tranche of Afghan Journalist Grants

The Overseas Press Club of America announces that it is making grants of $4,000 each to 17 Afghan journalists who have taken refuge in the United States, raising the total it has given to $133,000. The most recent round of grants was made possible through generous support from the Ford Foundation as well as gifts from members...

Press Freedom

OPC Winner Among Journalists Killed Covering Ukraine Conflict

OPC Winner Among Journalists Killed Covering Ukraine Conflict

American journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud, 50, was killed March 13 in a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine, while covering the war there. Photographer Juan Diego Arredondo, the 2020 winner of the OPC Foundation’s Harper’s Magazine Scholarship in memory I.F. Stone, also was wounded in what Kyiv police described as an attack by Russian forces...  

Photojournalism

OPC Member Peter Turnley Shares Photo Essay: ‘The Human Face of the Exodus from Ukraine’

OPC Member Peter Turnley Shares Photo Essay: ‘The Human Face of the Exodus from Ukraine’

OPC member Peter Turnley returned from Ukraine earlier this month after photographing the exodus of more than 2.6 million refugees crossing the border into Poland. In an email to the OPC, he said called it the largest exodus in Europe since World War II. In a Facebook post accompanying a group of photos from his journey, Turnely wrote that “I venture to say that no one reading this has ever taken a train ride like the one that thousands of Ukrainians, women and children, made last night from Lviv, Ukraine to the border of Ukraine in Poland, and I hope to God that you never will!”

People Remembered

OPC Colleagues Celebrate the Life and Work of Richard Stolley

OPC Colleagues Celebrate the Life and Work of Richard Stolley

Friends, colleagues and family members gathered at the Century Association in midtown Manhattan to honor the memory of OPC Past President Richard Stolley on March 4. His daughter, Martha, hosted the event, and three past OPC Presidents attended: Allan Dodds Frank, Michel Serrill and Alexis Gelber, as well as OPC Executive Director Patricia Kranz. Sonya Fry, past OPC executive director, was one of more than a dozen speakers at the memorial. She talked about about his years as longtime member and as president of the club from 2004 to 2006...

Event Recap

Peter Goodman Outlines ‘Long-term Forces’ Worsening Global Wealth Inequality

Peter Goodman Outlines ‘Long-term Forces’ Worsening Global Wealth Inequality

Billionaires and power brokers around the world have exploited the pandemic, as with other crises of the past, by securing government bailouts and shifting more wealth into their own hands, according to Peter Goodman, a former OPC governor and longtime business reporter at The New York Times. On March 3, he discussed his new book on the subject, Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World, with OPC President Paula Dwyer serving as moderator...

Event Recap

OPC Hosts Panel on Ukraine on the Brink of Russian Invasion

OPC Hosts Panel on Ukraine on the Brink of Russian Invasion

On Feb. 22, just two days before Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized "special military operations" in Ukraine and began artillery and missile attacks against Kiev and other major cities, three longtime residents of Ukraine discussed the possibility of war and its aftermath...

Press Freedom

FCCC Statement on Olympics Reporting

FCCC Statement on Olympics Reporting

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) is dismayed that the conditions for independent reporting in China continue to fall short of international standards during the Winter Olympic Games...

Event Recap

Mark Clifford Discusses the Future of Hong Kong and China's Global Strategy

Mark Clifford Discusses the Future of Hong Kong and China's Global Strategy

On Feb. 16, OPC member Mark Clifford discussed his new book, Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: What China’s Crackdown Reveals About Its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere, with moderator OPC Governor Jodi Schneider, political news director at Bloomberg News...

Press Freedom

OPC Joins Press Freedom Groups and Publications in Call for Release of Fahad Shah and Other Kashmiri Journalists

OPC Joins Press Freedom Groups and Publications in Call for Release of Fahad Shah and Other Kashmiri Journalists

Dear Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha - We, the undersigned 58 press freedom organizations, human rights organizations, and publications write to request your urgent intervention to secure the immediate release of Fahad Shah, editor of the online news portal The Kashmir Walla, from jail, and the withdrawal of all police investigations launched into his journalistic work...

Introduction

OPC at a Glance

OPC at a Glance

In this introductory video, OPC of America President Paula Dwyer describes the club's activities and mission, with testimonials and clips from past events...

OPC Press ID

OPC Offers Press ID

OPC Offers Press ID

The Overseas Press Club offers photo ID card options for our working press members...

Press IDs

OPC Offers Press IDs With Chinese Script

OPC Offers Press IDs With Chinese Script

The OPC is pleased to be able to offer OPC press IDs labeled with “PRESS” in Chinese characters. This new option is in addition to IDs that are available with “PRESS” in Arabic script. Both options are available for the larger government-style badges for $40, as well as the credit-card sized press IDs...

Field Report

OPC Press Badges Create Universal Access

OPC Press Badges Create Universal Access

I had no idea my new OPC press badges would give me unlimited access to covering one of the most horrific mass shootings of Jewish people in U.S. history. On a rainy October day in Pittsburgh, Pa., I walked quickly to the first of several press conferences that would unveil the somber and tragic acts of Robert Bowers...

Membership Fund

OPC Launches New Membership Fund for Freelancers

OPC Launches New Membership Fund for Freelancers

Please consider supporting the work of international freelance journalists by donating to the Membership Fund of the Overseas Press Club of America. Accurate, unbiased reporting is more important now than ever. But much of the work is being done by freelancers who have little institutional support from news organization...

OPC Press ID

OPC Press ID: ‘A Lifesaver’

OPC Press ID: ‘A Lifesaver’

In the winter of 2013, I heard a story about U.S.-backed forces burying a child alive in a remote village in Kandahar, Afghanistan. While investigating, I was arrested by forces loyal to the brutal police chief Abdul Raziq, America’s man in Kandahar. I was expelled from Kandahar and barred from ever returning...