Contact: Patricia Kranz, executive director, Overseas Press Club of America
patricia@opcofamerica.org – (917) 971-0746
New York Times, Reuters Are Top Winners in Overseas Press Club Awards
NEW YORK, March 20, 2024 — Coverage of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine dominated the competition in the 85th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards. The New York Times and Reuters were the big winners, with each news organization claiming four awards. Two of the Times’ awards were for coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and two were for work in Ukraine and Russia. In addition to its coverage of Gaza, Reuters won for reporting on violence in Sudan, drug trafficking in Mexico, and the global risk of new human viruses spread from bat populations.
The awards will be presented at the annual OPC awards dinner in New York on April 25, with David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, receiving the club’s President’s Award for his inspired contribution to international journalism over three decades.
“We are thrilled to be able to honor so much remarkable and courageous work this year,” said OPC President Scott Kraft. “The quality of the journalism our judges reviewed was especially strong and competitive – a reminder that international reporting remains not only vital but essential.”
“We also are extremely proud to introduce a new award that recognizes continuing coverage of a global conflict. A special congratulations to our first winner in that category – a team from Reuters for its powerful work on the civil war in Sudan.”
Six of the OPC’s 22 awards recognize coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, including video reports and breaking news delivered under intense Israeli bombardment. Five honor frontline reporting on the war in Ukraine, the aftermath of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population, and consequences of the war inside Russia.
The New Yorker won three awards: the Ed Cunningham Award for a story about women from Dubai’s ruling family fleeing oppression, the Flora Lewis Award for a series of essays written from Gaza, and the Roy Rowan Award for an investigation into China’s illegal operation of its fishing and seafood industries.
The Associated Press won two awards – the Kim Wall Award for a multimedia piece about migrants’ deadly sea voyages as they drift across the Atlantic from Africa, and the Peter Jennings Award, shared with FRONTLINE (PBS), for the film 20 Days in Mariupol, which also won an Academy Award.
Samar Abu Elouf of the Times won the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal Award for photography requiring exceptional courage and enterprise. She documented the lives of Palestinians in Gaza before and during the war. Mohammed Salem of Reuters won the Olivier Rebbot Award for his photographs depicting destruction and grief in Gaza. Nanna Heitmann of the Times won the first Danish Siddiqui Award, previously called the Feature Photography Award, for images of the Russian side of the war in Ukraine. Siddiqui, an award-winning Reuters photojournalist, was killed while covering the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in July 2021.
For courageous reporting in Ukraine and Russia, Times staff won the newly renamed William Worthy Award, previously named the Bob Considine Award, which goes to the best newspaper, news service or digital interpretation of international affairs. Worthy was an African-American foreign correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American and CBS News whose international reporting and tenacity opened doors for African-American correspondents. A team from Reuters won the first-ever Continuing Coverage of Conflict Award for a series covering the civil war in Sudan.
The OPC also awarded runner-up citations in 21 of the 22 categories. The Times led with four citations followed by FRONTLINE (PBS), VICE News and The Washington Post, each with two citations.
The keynote address at the April 25 dinner will be delivered by Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of the Philippines’ Rappler news service and winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
The OPC Press Freedom Candle honoring journalists who have been killed, injured or imprisoned in the past year will be lighted by Ayman Mohyeldin, host of MSNBC’s “Ayman.”
Marcus Mabry, Senior Vice President of Digital Editorial and Programming for CNN, will serve as the awards presenter.
The OPC Awards judging process is led by John Daniszewski, vice president and editor-at-large for standards of The Associated Press. The entries are reviewed by more than 100 judges from across the profession with deep experience in international journalism.
For a full list of award winners, see below. To see citation (runner-up) winners, click on this link. A list of all our awards judges is posted here. Biographies of people whose names are on the awards are listed here.
Please follow us on X @opcofamerica and tweet using #OPCAwards85.
OPC 2024 Awards (for work in 2023)
Newspapers, News Services, Print or Digital
THE HAL BOYLE AWARD
Best newspaper, news service or digital reporting from abroad
Sponsor: Norman Pearlstine in memory of Jerry Flint
Staff
The New York Times
Judges: The Times told wrenching human stories both from Israel’s kibbutzim and Gaza’s civilian population centers. It also broke news on the most important international story of the year. Its revelations that the Israeli government ignored clear intelligence warnings that Hamas was planning an elaborate attack reverberated worldwide.
THE WILLIAM WORTHY AWARD
Best newspaper, news service or digital interpretation of international affairs
Sponsor: The Simon and June Li Center for Global Journalism
Staff
The New York Times
Judges: At great personal risk, correspondents ventured deep inside the country. They broke major stories about the convicts sprung to fight on the frontlines of Ukraine, about Russia’s evasion of sanctions and the profits reaped from the departure of Western companies and about the suppression of dissent.
THE ED CUNNINGHAM AWARD
Best magazine-style, long-form narrative feature in print or digital on an international story
Sponsor: Michael S. Serrill
Heidi Blake
The New Yorker
“The Fugitive Princesses of Dubai”
Judges: Heidi Blake masterfully weaves together the many pieces and people of this complicated and little-understood saga into a sprawling tale spanning years and continents, taking the reader from the palaces of Dubai to the English countryside. The result is a rich and satisfying story centered on the eternal human desire for freedom.
THE MADELINE DANE ROSS AWARD
Best international reporting in the print medium or digital showing a concern for the human condition
Sponsor: Linda Fasulo
Krithika Varagur
Harper’s Magazine
“Love in the Time of Sickle Cell Disease: What’s the Cost of Rolling the Genetic Dice?”
Judges: This gripping love story from Nigeria, known as the sickle cell disease capital of the world, shows what happens when universal human longings are entangled with governments, genetics, ethics and cold medical truths. By explaining without exploiting, the writer allows the central couple’s story to unfold with dignity and sensitivity.
THE KIM WALL AWARD
Best story or series of stories on international affairs using creative and dynamic digital storytelling techniques
Sponsor: ProPublica
Renata Brito and Felipe Dana
The Associated Press
“Adrift”
Judges: “Adrift,” a story of African migration to Europe, lingers with you long after you’ve read it. The information was structured and presented in a way that felt cinematic. The visuals were stunning, with big, bold chapter heads that made it clear that we were going on a journey. The writing was beautiful and poignant: These migrants are as invisible in death as they were in life.
TV, Video, Radio, or Podcast
THE LOWELL THOMAS AWARD
Best radio, audio, or podcast coverage of international affairs
Sponsor: Deborah Amos
Eyder Peralta, Dan Girma, Jenny Schmidt, Tara Neill and Ayesha Rascoe
NPR
“The Sunday Story: A Rare Look Inside Locked-down Nicaragua”
Judges: Eyder Peralta shares insight into his exiled family, his personal relationship with his homeland and paints a picture of the landscape. Woven with the sounds of the country, its people, its music and his own engaging storytelling, he brings Nicaragua to life while providing the historical context of how it came to be what it is today. Peralta tells a story that is difficult to access in a way that is both educational and appealing.
THE DAVID KAPLAN AWARD
Best TV or video spot news reporting from abroad
Sponsor: ABC News
Staff
CNN Worldwide
Judges: The network’s bold and determined correspondents, producers, and camera crews provided the most moving and insightful reports and perspectives, often live and under direct fire, exploring the deepest emotions of Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the dynamics driving all parties to this conflict.
THE EDWARD R. MURROW AWARD
Best TV, video or documentary interpretation of international affairs with a run time up to 30 minutes
Sponsor: CBS News
Mohammed Sawwaf, Ibrahim Al-Otla, Salah Al-Haw, Marwan Al-Sawwaf, Alef Multimedia and the Al Jazeera Witness Team
Al Jazeera English
“Witness – Rescue Mission Gaza”
Judges: The half-hour film follows an ambulance driver in this work in Gaza. We see poignant scenes like the ambulance worker reuniting with his children after weeks, handing them each a coin and a hug, and then getting back in his ambulance, and crying. Through all this, the journalists remain invisible, with no narration, commentary or judgment. One of the filmmakers was later killed in an Israeli airstrike, a second seriously injured.
THE PETER JENNINGS AWARD
Best TV, video or documentary about international affairs with a run time over 30 minutes
Sponsor: The Jennings Family
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson-Rath, Derl McCrudden and Staffs
FRONTLINE (PBS) and The Associated Press
Judges: There is not one false note in this powerful narrative. While the events in this film took place early in the war, the story it tells is just as urgent and relevant today, with Ukraine’s plight growing ever more precarious, support from the U.S. and the West increasingly uncertain, and Russia becoming ever more emboldened.
THE DAVID A. ANDELMAN AND PAMELA TITLE AWARD
Best international TV, video, radio, audio or podcast reporting showing a concern for the human condition
Sponsor: David A. Andelman and Pamela Title
Leila Hussain and Bloomberg Staff
Bloomberg News
“Run For Your Life: The Murder that Shook the Running World”
Judges: Visually stunning and thoughtfully reported, Bloomberg effectively documented the widespread issue of gender-based violence against African runners and questioned what more can be done by governing bodies and the sports brands that benefit from the success of female athletes.
Any Medium
THE MALCOLM FORBES AND MORTON FRANK AWARD
Best international business news reporting in any medium
Sponsor: Forbes Magazine
Miles Johnson
Financial Times
“Wagner Inc: The Criminal Empire of Yevgeny Prigozhin”
Judges: Miles Johnson’s reporting exposed how Western lawyers and other professionals helped the Russian criminal known as “Putin’s chef” evade international sanctions. Johnson also illuminated how Prigozhin’s forces pillaged Africa and Ukraine, looting, raping, torturing, committing arson and murdering many, including journalists.
THE CONTINUING COVERAGE OF CONFLICT AWARD
Best reporting on a continuing international conflict or crisis in any medium
Sponsor: The Simon and June Li Center for Global Journalism
Maggie Michael, El Tayeb Siddig, Ryan McNeill, Zohra Bensemra, Khalid Abdelaziz, Nafisa Eltahir,
Aidan Lewis and Staff
Reuters
Judges: This Reuters series bore witness to a systematic massacre in Sudan that has gone overlooked. Trenchant, moving, and deeply reported, the series lays bare how the Sudanese civil war unleashed a campaign of ethnic slaughter against the Masalit people of West Darfur.
THE JOE AND LAURIE DINE AWARD
Best international reporting in any medium dealing with human rights
Sponsor: Philip Dine
Isobel Yeung, Maya Rostowska, Daniel Vergara, Kateryna Malofieieva, Sean Stephens and Staff
VICE News
Judges: Granted rare access to a camp for Ukrainian children inside Russia, VICE takes viewers inside an Orwellian tableau of military uniforms and patriotic songs, interviewing children who have become unwitting spoils of the conflict. This is video journalism at its bravest and stands out amid all the powerful reporting about the war.
THE WHITMAN BASSOW AWARD
Best reporting in any medium on international environmental issues
Sponsor: Robert Serio
Staff
Reuters
Judges: In a tour-de-force of graphics presentations, narrative writing, data analysis and on-the-ground reporting on six continents, the reporters were able to draw a connection between many of the all-too-common environmental problems the world faces and the risk of life-threatening disease. The result was eye-opening, convincing and terrifying – truly an environmental story of our time.
THE ROBERT SPIERS BENJAMIN AWARD
Best reporting in any medium on Latin America
Sponsor: Laurie Hays
Drazen Jorgic, Diego Oré, Jackie Botts, Sarah Kinosian and Stephen Eisenhammer
Reuters
Judges: The Reuters team illustrates the evolution of Mexico-based drug trafficking into a vast fentanyl empire that kills thousands of Americans and rots Mexico’s already fragile institutions from the presidency to the army and the remittance financial system. The series ties together numerous themes underlying this criminal enterprise and digs up hard facts to expose fresh examples of the corruption that feeds it.
THE ROY ROWAN AWARD
Best investigative reporting in any medium on an international story
Sponsor: Marcus Rowan
Ian Urbina, Joe Galvin, Maya Martin, Susan Ryan and Staff of the Outlaw Ocean Project
The New Yorker and The Outlaw Ocean Project
“The Crimes Behind the Seafood You Eat”
Judges: The result of four years of daring, sometimes dangerous reporting, this sweeping investigation exposes the ruthless measures China used to create the world’s largest commercial fishing fleet. Picked up by media around the world and translated into several languages, this investigation triggered outrage and calls for reform from human rights organizations and the U.S. Congress.
THE FLORA LEWIS AWARD
Best commentary in any medium on international news
Sponsor: Marc Lemcke
Mosab Abu Toha
The New Yorker
Judges: With his poet’s gift of sparse, measured words, notably absent of vitriol, Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian voice from inside Gaza evoking the fear, desperation, and misery – but also the humanity – of a people determined to survive one of the most intense onslaughts of urban warfare in modern history.
Photography
THE ROBERT CAPA GOLD MEDAL AWARD
Best photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise published in any medium
Sponsor: Getty Images
Samar Abu Elouf
The New York Times
“Gaza”
Judges: Despite losing loved ones and being separated from her children, Samar’s commitment to bearing witness helped inform the world of the nightmare that became life – and death – in Gaza when access to information was increasingly challenging.
THE OLIVIER REBBOT AWARD
Best photographic news reporting from abroad in any medium
Sponsor: David Ake
Mohammed Salem
Reuters
Judges: While his portfolio included scenes of the widespread destruction in Gaza, it is his empathetic and poetic documentation of unimaginable loss, grief and terror that really moved the judges. What is clear is that Mohammed sees himself and his loved ones in every frame – we see and feel his love for his people.
THE DANISH SIDDIQUI AWARD
Best feature photography on an international theme published in any medium
Sponsor: Reuters
Nanna Heitmann
The New York Times
Judges: Nanna Heitmann’s stunning photographs tell the story of a society shrouded in nationalism and secrecy, showing unmarked graves in a snow-covered cemetery, a volleyball arena transformed into a refugee center, and the devotion displayed by young boys at a Communist Party youth event. Heitmann’s work captures the complexities of daily life under war, while delving into the historical legacy from which it originates.
Books
THE CORNELIUS RYAN AWARD
Best non-fiction book on international affairs
Paul Caruana Galizia
Penguin Random House, Riverhead Books
Judges: An outstanding biography of Daphne Caruana Galizia by her son. She was a Maltese journalist assassinated by a car bomb for exposing pervasive government corruption. In the wake of her murder son Paul Caruana Galizia has produced a meticulously reported and highly readable account of his mother’s life.
Cartoons
THE BEST CARTOON AWARD
Best print or digital graphic journalism, including cartoons, on international affairs
Sponsor: Mercedes-Benz
Newsday
Judges: Matt Davies’ portfolio showcased consistently smart and insightful commentaries drawn in a uniquely playful satirical style. His cartoons use simple, striking images with remarkably few words and employ the wit and charm of his children’s book illustrations teamed with the acumen of his prize-winning journalism.