Foreign correspondent showing a concern for the human condition
Award Year: 1986
Award Name: The Madeline Dane Ross Award 1986
Recipient: Tom Squitieri
Affiliation: The Lowell Sun
Honored Work: “No Refuge”
Tom Squitieri’s articles, “No Refuge,” described the plight of Cambodian and Laotian refugees in Thailand – “victims in an international failure that leaves them helpless.” He described how weary bureaucrats and arbitrary regulations destroyed hope. He told of the brutality and corruption of Task Force 80, the militia of Thai youths assigned to safeguard the refugees, and the role it played in the black market and organized prostitution. In addition, he wrote of the refugees who managed to reach and settle in Lowell, Mass., and of bringing refugees still in Thailand videotapes of their liberated relatives – their best gift short of a visa.
Citation for Excellence:
David Zucchino
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Reporting from South Africa