75th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards

Contacts: Tamara Boorstein (347) 628-8983 or tamara.boorstein@gmail.com

Global Unrest and Environment Take Lead in Top International Stories of 2013 at
Historic 75th Overseas Press Club Awards Dinner
Bob Simon of CBS News-60 Minutes Receives President’s Award;
Kate O’Brian of Al Jazeera America and Kathleen Carroll from The Associated Press will light the Press Freedom candle in memory of the
Journalists Killed and Missing in Action

 

WINNERS >>

NEW YORK, April 24, 2014 — 2013 news stories included a military crackdown in Egypt, a terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Kenya, the death of a beauty queen in Mexico, as well as stories on the environment and iPhones. This year’s annual awards are particularly historic as they mark the 75th anniversary of the Overseas Press Club (OPC). The Associated Press, The New York Times and National Public Radio won multiple awards.

For the first time ever, one reporter has received two OPC awards for one story. Rukmini Callimachi won both the Hal Boyle and Bob Considine awards for her Associated Press coverage in Mali that uncovered one of the most significant troves of al-Qaida documents ever made public. The in-depth story not only explored the opaque world of al-Qaida but also its impact on Timbuktu and Africa as a whole.

Bob Simon of CBS News-60 Minutes will receive the President’s Award for lifetime achievement. Kate O’Brian, president, Al Jazeera America and Kathleen Carroll, executive editor, The Associated Press, will light the press freedom candle in memory of journalists who have died in the line of duty in 2013 and in honor of those injured, missing and abducted. Earlier in the day, David Muir, ABC World News Weekend Anchor, lit the Empire State Building in blue lights in honor of the OPC’s 75th anniversary.

Other news organizations winning awards include Reuters, Financial Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, The Seattle Times, Bloomberg News and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Harper’s Magazine, WGBH-TV, CBS Evening News, HBO Documentary, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

“When we started in 1939, one book, The Inside Story, a compilation of on-the-scene stories by foreign correspondents, edited by Robert Spiers Benjamin was the feature of the first black tie dinner,” said OPC President Michael Serrill. “Today, the Overseas Press Club Awards are among the most prestigious, recognizing exceptional journalism in more than 20 categories and through multiple media channels. The breadth and depth of international journalism remains unprecedented, despite the increased risks to journalists’ lives in conflict areas.”

The Robert Capa Gold Medal Award, which honors best photographic reporting requiring exceptional courage and enterprise, went to Tyler Hicks for coverage in The New York Times of the Kenyan mall attack. It took much risk to stay on scene in order to document the horrors and aftermath of the attack.

There were 449 entries in this year’s competition.