International Center for Journalists issues awards

[James H. Fetzer]

Dear Jim,

I am pleased to announce the ICFJ's 2009 awards winners:

The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh (http://e2ma.net/go/2139957166/1952024/72340258/22509/goto:http://www.icfj.org/AwardsDinner/SeymourMHersh/tabid/1368/Default.aspx ) will receive ICFJ's Founders Award for his outstanding investigative reporting over 40 years.
Hersh describes himself as a vehicle for dissent. In 1969, he won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing the massacre by U.S. troops of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai and the subsequent efforts to cover up the story. He again shocked the world in 2004 with an award-winning series on abuses that took place in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. In addition to those stories, he has produced a stream of reports that raise questions about powerful people, their policies and ethics.

"Sy Hersh can find the hidden story like no other," said James F. Hoge, Jr., chairman of ICFJ and
Editor of Foreign Affairs. "Without him, many critiques of policy and policy-makers would never have been part of our public dialogue or history." Read more.
(http://e2ma.net/go/2139957166/1952024/72340259/22509/goto:http://www.icfj.org/News/PressReleases/TheNewYorkersSeymourHershtoReceiveFounders/tabid/1370/Default.aspx )

Cao Junwu ( http://e2ma.net/go/2139957166/1952024/72340260/22509/goto:http://knight.icfj.org/Awards/KnightAwardsOverview/CaoJunwu/tabid/1365/Default.aspx ) of China and Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu (http://e2ma.net/go/2139957166/1952024/72340261/22509/goto:http://knight.icfj.org/Awards/KnightAwardsOverview/ChouchouNamegabebrNabintu/tabid/1367/Default.aspx ) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the winners of the 2009 Knight International Journalism Award (http://e2ma.net/go/2139957166/1952024/72340262/22509/goto:http://knight.icfj.org/Awards/KnightAwardsOverview/tabid/81/Default.aspx ).

Cao, a reporter for the respected Southern Weekend, was one of the first on the scene during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He traveled by helicopter and hiked along cliffs to reach the devastated area, which was cut off from the world. His moving blog and newspaper coverage conveyed the despair, courage and resilience of the survivors. In 2007, when a flood in Jinan, Shandong Province's capital city, killed 34 and injured 171, Cao exposed the cause: flaws in the city's sewer system.

Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu uses community radio to report on the sexual violence against women in the lawless eastern section of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The self-taught radio journalist traveled through refugee camps in remote regions to collect wrenching accounts from traumatized women. Namegabe also founded the South Kivu Association of Women Journalists and began equipping other women with microphones and radios to report on important stories. In a culture in which women are shamed into silence, she has helped them find their voices and given them a support network to grow professionally as journalists.

Read more. (http://e2ma.net/go/2139957166/1952024/72340263/22509/goto:http://www.icfj.org/News/PressReleases/KnightAward2009PressRelease/tabid/1371/Default.aspx )

I believe our winners this year are fearless truth-tellers who won't back down from a tough story, no matter the risks. These journalists tell important stories that others have shied away from.

To meet the winners, please come to our 25th Anniversary Awards Dinner on Nov. 12 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. ABC's George Stephanopoulos will serve as Master of Ceremonies.

Congratulations to the winners!


Joyce Barnathan
President
International Center for Journalists

1616 H Street, NW 3rd Floor
Washington, DC
20006 US