Contact: Tamara Boorstein
(347) 628-8983 or tboorstein@opcofamerica.org
77th OPC Awards Recognize International Reporting Excellence Amid More Hostile Climate for Journalists; Winners Cited For Stories On Slave Labor, Refugees, ISIS and Corruption
David Fanning, Founder and Former Executive Producer of PBS Investigative Series FRONTLINE Receives President’s Award;
Jason Rezaian, Former Tehran Bureau Chief of The Washington Post Lights Press Freedom Candle in Memory of journalists Killed, Imprisoned or Missing in Action
NEW YORK, April 28, 2016 — The 22 award-winning entries for the annual Overseas Press Club (OPC) Awards highlight the increasing hazards facing foreign correspondents around the world. The Associated Press, the Center for Public Integrity Foreign Policy, FRONTLINE, Reuters and The New York Times won multiple awards; The Associated Press won two awards for its story, “Seafood from Slaves.”
While the award-winning stories reflect themes of conflict, corruption and disaster, they also show how, in a hyper-connected world, these dangers spill over and quickly present global perils. Journalists covering these events now face a more hazardous climate with a growing number of limitations to free speech across the globe.
“Our jobs have become more dangerous and harder to come as our profession faces economic and technological change,” says Marcus Mabry, president of the Overseas Press Club of America and the managing editor of Twitter Moments. “We gather tonight not to bemoan this reality, but to confront it. Our role as journalists is to bear witness, and ensure that suffering is not in silence, injustice is not unknown.”
As part of confronting this new reality, the OPC joined last year with the Frontline Freelance Register, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, DART, other advocacy groups and 90 news organizations to sign the Global Safety Principles and Practices for protecting freelancers in dangerous overseas assignments.
Kai Ryssdal, host and senior editor of American Public Radio’s Marketplace,” will emcee the awards night, with the OPC honoring David Fanning, founder and executive producer at large of FRONTLINE, with the President’s Award. Jason Rezaian, journalist and former Tehran bureau chief for The Washington Post, who was released from Iran in January after more than 18 months in jail, will light the press freedom candle in memory of journalists who have died in the line of duty in the past year and in honor of those imprisoned or missing.
Bassam Khabieh, international photojournalist with Reuters, will receive The Robert Capa Gold Medal Award, which honors the best photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise. Mr. Khabieh is being honored for “Field Hospital Damascus,” with images that put into perspective the tremendous danger and difficulties facing journalists in Syria today.
There were 486 entries in this year’s competition.
The OPC Awards will be live-streamed. Please follow us on Twitter @opcofamerica and tweet using #OPCAwards. Detailed information and photographs will be posted on the OPC website at www.opcofamerica.org. Contact patricia@opcofamerica.org or (212) 626-9220 if you wish to cover the award presentations in person.
AWARDS:
Newspapers, News Services, Magazines or Online
THE HAL BOYLE AWARD
Best newspaper, news service or online reporting from abroad
Martha Mendoza, Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, Esther Htusan, The Associated Press
THE BOB CONSIDINE AWARD
Best newspaper, news service or online interpretation of international affairs Reuters Team, Reuters
THE MALCOLM FORBES AWARD
Best international business news reporting in newspapers, news services or online
Martha Mendoza, Esther Htusan, Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, The Associated Press
THE MADELINE DANE ROSS AWARD
Best international reporting in the print medium or online showing a concern for the human condition
Patrick McDonnell, Christopher Goffard, Laura King, Kate Linthicum and Henry Chu
Los Angeles Times
THE WHITMAN BASSOW AWARD
Best reporting in any medium on international environmental issues
The Center for Public Integrity/International Consortium of Investigative Journalists /The Huffington Post
“Evicted and Abandoned: The World Bank’s Broken Promise to the Poor”
THE ROBERT SPIERS BENJAMIN AWARD
Best reporting in any medium on Latin America
Eduardo Castillo, Christopher Sherman and Dario Lopez-Mills
The Associated Press
“Thousands of Mexican Families Mourn the ‘Other Disappeared’”
BEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
Best investigative reporting in any medium on an international story
Erika Solomon, Sam Jones, Ahmad Mhidi and Guy Chazan, Financial Times
BEST COMMENTARY
Best commentary on international news in any medium
Mark Lilla, The New York Review of Books
THE ED CUNNINGHAM AWARD
Best magazine reporting in print or online on an international story
Tristan McConnell, Foreign Policy
“Close Your Eyes and Pretend to Be Dead”
THE MORTON FRANK AWARD
Best magazine international business news reporting in print or online
Christina Larson, Foreign Policy
THE JOE and LAURIE DINE AWARD
Best international reporting in any medium dealing with human rights
David Rohde and Charles Levinson, Reuters
Photography
THE ROBERT CAPA GOLD MEDAL AWARD
Best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage, enterprise
Bassam Khabieh, Reuters
THE OLIVIER REBBOT AWARD
Best photographic reporting from abroad in magazines or books
Stephen Dupont, Steidl
“Generation AK: The Afghanistan Wars, 1993-2012”
THE JOHN FABER AWARD
Best photographic reporting from abroad in newspapers or news services
Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev, Tyler Hicks and Daniel Etter, The New York Times
“Exodus”
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD
Best feature photography published in any medium on an international theme
Daniel Berehulak, The New York Times
“High in the Himalayas, A Search After the Nepal Quake Yields Grim Results”
TV and Radio
THE LOWELL THOMAS AWARD
Best radio or audio news or interpretation of international affairs
Molly Webster, Jad Abumrad, Soren Wheeler, Dylan Keefe, Maya Kosover, Yochai Maital
RadIolab/WNYC
THE DAVID KAPLAN AWARD
Best TV or video spot news reporting from abroad
Emiland Guillerme, Ben Laffin, Spencer Wolff, Deborah Acosta, Yousur Al-Hlou, Pamela Druckerman, Stefania Rousselle, Ben C. Solomon, Leslye Davis, Taige Jensen, Quyn Do, Adam B. Ellick, Steve Duenes
The New York Times
“Paris”
THE EDWARD R. MURROW AWARD
Best TV or video interpretation or documentary on international affairs
Jamie Doran, Najibullah Quraishi, Raney Aronson,
PBS Investigative Series FRONTLINE
THE DAVID A. ANDELMAN and PAMELA TITLE AWARD
Best international reporting in the broadcast media showing a concern for the human condition
Evan Williams, Edward Watts, Raney Aronson
PBS Investigative Series FRONTLINE
Book
THE CORNELIUS RYAN AWARD
Best non-fiction book on international affairs
Tom Burgis, PublicAffairs
“The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa’s Wealth”
Cartoon
THE THOMAS NAST AWARD
Best cartoons on international affairs
Patrick Chappatte, The New York Times
Multimedia
BEST MULTIMEDIA NEWS PRESENTATION
Best use of video, interactive graphics and slideshows to report on international news
Eleanor Bell, Will Fitzgibbon, Chris Zubak-Skees
The Center for Public Integrity/International Consortium of Investigative Journalists/Pulitzer Center
“Fatal Extraction: Australian Mining in Africa”
# # #
About the Overseas Press Club of America
The Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The OPC seeks to maintain an international association of journalists working in the United States and abroad; to encourage the highest standards of professional integrity and skill in the reporting of news; to help educate a new generation of journalists; to contribute to the freedom and independence of journalists and the press throughout the world, and to work toward better communication and understanding among people.