Contact: Patricia Kranz
79th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards Recognize Finest International Reporting; The Associated Press and Reuters are Top Winners; Fall of ISIS and War’s Impact on Civilians are Recurring Themes; AP’s Kathy Gannon Honored with OPC President’s Award; New York Times Managing Editor Joseph Kahn to Deliver Keynote Address
NEW YORK, March 21, 2018 — The fall of ISIS and war’s human toll on civilian populations emerged as the leading storylines among the 22 winners of the 79th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards. America’s oldest association dedicated to international news will honor the journalists at an April 26 dinner in New York. The OPC President’s Award recognizes veteran AP foreign correspondent Kathy Gannon.
Three OPC awards each were given for stories on defeating ISIS in Iraq and Syria as well as coverage detailing the ravages of war on civilians. There were also multiple winners for stories on the horrific crimes against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar and the crackdown on drug traffic in the Philippines.
“The scope and scale of this work is astonishing,” said Deidre Depke, president of the Overseas Press Club. “It’s a testament to the professionalism, perseverance and courage of journalists around the world.”
The Associated Press and Reuters led all media outlets with three OPC awards each. AP won the prestigious Hal Boyle Award for best newspaper or news service reporting from abroad as its team chronicled the human rights violations against the Rohingya people in Myanmar, in addition to a staff award for covering the collapse of ISIS in Mosul and Maggie Michaels’ AP series on the Saudi-led torture of prisoners in Yemen.
Reuters won the first-ever Roy Rowan Award for best investigative reporting with an exposé on the murderous drug crackdown conducted by the Philippine police. Rowan, a former OPC president, passed away in 2016 after a legendary 70-year journalism career.
Reuters also won best business reporting for a series on big tobacco’s sophisticated behind-the-scenes attacks against anti-tobacco forces in foreign markets. Carlos Garcia Rawlins and Carlos Barria of Reuters won a photo award for a powerful visual essay on the violence in Venezuela.
The other two photo prizes went to Carol Guzy of Zuma Press who won the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award for exceptional courage by capturing the vulnerable inhabitants of Mosul during the Iraqi Army’s war with ISIS. Kevin Frayer of Getty Images won the feature photography award documenting the Rohingya’s deadly exodus from Myanmar.
The New York Times won two OPC awards, including best interpretation of international affairs for a team prize on North Korea’s efforts to become a nuclear power. The Times also won best magazine reporting as Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal revealed that U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq caused much higher civilian casualties than originally reported.
The first-ever Kim Wall Award for best digital reporting went to the Washington Post team of William Booth, Sufian Taha and Linda Davidson for their intimate series detailing the military occupation story from three Palestinians. Wall is a former OPC member and international journalist who died in August 2017. Wall’s parents, Ingrid and Joachim, will light the OPC Candle of Remembrance at the dinner.
New York Times Managing Editor Joseph Kahn will deliver the keynote address and the evening’s emcee will be Jose Diaz-Balart, anchor from Noticias Telemundo and NBC News. The OPC Awards Dinner on April 26 will be live-streamed. Please follow us on Twitter @opcofamerica and tweet using #OPCAwards79.
Contact patricia@opcofamerica.org if you wish to cover the award presentations in person.
For a full list of award winners, see below. To see citation (runner-up) winners, click on this link.
Click here for a list of judges.
AWARDS
Newspapers, News Services, Magazines or Digital
The Hal Boyle Award
Best newspaper, news service or digital reporting from abroad
Associated Press Staff
“Rohingya Exodus”
Judges: In a series of powerful and unforgettable stories, rich with detail and dogged reporting, a team of Associated Press journalists documented the horrific crimes unfolding against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar.
The Bob Considine Award
Best newspaper, news service or digital interpretation of international affairs
New York Times Staff
“North Korea, and the Unthinkable”
Judges: Of the multiple media projects that explored and analyzed Kim Jong-un’s objectives, The New York Times most effectively harnessed the expertise of its correspondents around the world.
The Malcolm Forbes Award
Best international business news reporting in newspapers, news services or digital
Paritosh Bansal, Tom Lasseter, Aditya Kalra, Duff Wilson and team
Reuters
“The Philip Morris Files”
Judges: In industry after industry, companies with big lobbying budgets have managed to control and even dictate regulations without being seen.
The Ed Cunningham Award
Best magazine reporting in print or digital on an international story
Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal
The New York Times Magazine
“The Uncounted”
Judges: Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal spent almost two years visiting about 150 bomb sites in northern Iraq, often at great personal risk, for this powerful story that showed civilian casualties caused by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes were considerably higher than previously reported.
The Morton Frank Award
Best magazine international business news reporting in print or digital
Monte Reel
Bloomberg Businessweek
“How to Rebuild Puerto Rico”
Judges: Monte Reel’s engagingly written account of the aftermath, “How to Rebuild Puerto Rico,” is a sweeping, moving and financially literate account of Puerto Ricans’ struggle to recover.
The Madeline Dane Ross Award
Best international reporting in print or digital showing a concern for the human condition
Associated Press Staff
“Collapse of the Caliphate: Triumph and Tragedy in Mosul”
Judges: AP reporters covering the collapse of Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate struck the right balance between aggressive reporting and sensitive writing on the horrors endured by Mosul residents.
The Joe and Laurie Dine Award
Best international reporting in any medium dealing with human rights
Maggie Michael
The Associated Press
“In Yemen, Human Rights a Casualty of War”
Judges: Maggie Michael took great personal risks, with her video colleague, driver and fixers, to tell the story of the 18 secret prisons in Yemen where detainees are tortured by men from the UAE.
The Whitman Bassow Award
Best reporting in any medium on international environmental issues
Sam Evans-Brown and Hannah McCarthy
Powerline, New Hampshire Public Radio
“Outside/In” podcast
The judges especially liked the team’s ambition, as well as its conclusion that no energy source, no matter how clean, is free of victims—a fact that is too often lost in the coverage of climate change.
The Kim Wall Award
Best story or series of stories on international affairs using digital storytelling techniques
William Booth, Sufian Taha and Linda Davidson
The Washington Post
“Occupied”
Judges: What does it feel like to be occupied in 2017? To answer this question, the Washington Post produced an intimate, immersive series that transports readers into the worlds of three Palestinians.
The Roy Rowan Award
Best investigative reporting in any medium on an international story
Clare Baldwin, Andrew R.C. Marshall, Manuel Mogato and Reuters team
“Duterte’s War”
Judges: Their exhaustive, meticulous reporting exposes the scope of the state’s role in the slaughter of its own citizens.
The Best Commentary Award
Best commentary in any medium on international news
Gideon Rachman
Financial Times
Judges: In an outstanding field of deeply reported and intelligent entries, Gideon Rachman’s range of subjects, reported insight and refreshing opinions was the most impressive. He was particularly forceful on the rising tide of nationalism facing Europe and the U.S.
Photography
The Robert Capa Gold Medal Award
Best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise
Carol Guzy
Zuma Press
“Scars of Mosul, the Legacy of ISIS”
Judges: Guzy stepped outside the bounds of covering a hostile story and offered an intimate, sensitive and haunting coverage of the innocents we often do not see reflected in images from amid the gore of war time.
The Olivier Rebbot Award
Best photographic news reporting from abroad in any medium
Carlos Garcia Rawlins and Carlos Barria
Reuters
“Venezuela Marred by Violence “
Judges: The entry, condensed to twelve dizzying images, showcased one of the most visually hostile stories of the year. The potent and strikingly violent images invoked an auditory response from the jury as they rolled across the screen.
The Feature Photography Award
Best feature photography published in any medium on an international theme
Kevin Frayer
Getty Images
“The Harrowing Exodus of Rohingya Muslims To Bangladesh”
Judges: One of the most comprehensive picture packages of the year, Kevin Frayer’s images documented the Rohingya’s grueling and deadly exodus from Myanmar.
TV and Radio
The Lowell Thomas Award
Best radio, audio, or podcast news or interpretation of international affairs
Gregory Warner, Laura Heaton, Marianne McCune, Michael May and Jess Jiang
NPR
“The Congo We Listen To,” an episode of the Rough Translation podcast
Judges: What Heaton found was that the real story was different from what had been reported, and she worked to find out why village women had chosen to hide the full story.
The David Kaplan Award
Best TV or video spot news reporting from abroad
Nick Paton Walsh and Arwa Damon
CNN
“Fall of ISIS”
Judges: CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh and Arwa Damon brought viewers directly into the final fight to push the ISIS terrorists out of their strongholds in Iraq and Syria while at the same time revealing its terrible human cost.
The Edward R. Murrow Award
Best TV, video or documentary interpretation of international affairs less than one hour
Raney Aronson-Rath, James Jones, Olivier Sarbil, Dan Edge and Andrew Metz
FRONTLINE PBS in association with Channel 4
“Mosul”
Judges: Filmmaker Olivier Sarbil follows a squad of Iraqi Special Forces as they fight their way house by house through Mosul. His documentary stands out for the way it connects viewers with the characters of four Iraqi soldiers, putting human faces on an inhuman conflict.
The Peter Jennings Award
Best TV, video or documentary about international affairs one hour or longer
Evgeny Afineevsky, Den Tolmor and Aaron I. Butler
HBO
“Cries from Syria”
Judges: By combining footage shot by activists and ordinary citizens with interviews with Syrians who have survived the war, the film masterfully captures a story that is both personal and comprehensive.
The Robert Spiers Benjamin Award
Best reporting in any medium on Latin America
Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times
“Mexico’s Housing Debacle: A Failed Vision”
Drawing on documents, interviews and inspection of 50 developments from Tijuana to the Gulf of Mexico, Marosi chronicled how corruption, poor planning and impunity trapped thousands of Mexicans in unhealthy, sub-standard housing many could not afford.
The David A. Andelman and Pamela Title Award
Best international reporting in the broadcast media showing a concern for the human condition
Ed Ou and Aurora Almendral
NBC Left Field
“The Kill List: The Brutal Drug War in the Philippines”
Judges: A personal and riveting behind-the-scenes insight into the Philippines drug war as seen through the eyes of people involved. The viewer is taken on a journey by hunters and the hunted.
Book
The Cornelius Ryan Award
Best non-fiction book on international affairs
Suzy Hansen
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
“Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World”
Judges: Hansen takes aim at how the abiding myth of “American exceptionalism” has blinded American policymakers, journalists and citizens to an often-sordid reality. Hansen has produced a sweeping and powerful corrective to the way most Americans view U.S. foreign policy of the past 70 years.
Cartoon
The Thomas Nast Award
Best cartoons on international affairs
Clay Bennett
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Judges: Clay Bennett’s deceptively simple cartoons, often without captions, drive home strong, perceptive messages…Clever ideas and an engaging style make for a memorable portfolio.