Press Release - 2003 Courage in Journalism Awards in New York
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2003 Courage in Journalism Awards in New York
The International Women’s Media Foundation’s
Courage in Journalism Awards 2003 to Honor Women Journalists
Who Risk Their Lives in Iraq, Ukraine and Guatemala
- Argentine Press Freedom Advocate Receives Lifetime Achievement Award-
—Ann S. Moore of Time Inc., and Bob Wright of GE/NBC are Event Chairs —
Washington, DC - The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) presents the 14th Annual Courage in Journalism Awards, Thursday, October 16, 2003, 12 noon – 2 p.m, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Recipients are Anne Garrels of National Public Radio; Tatyana Goryachova of Berdyansk Delovoy, Ukraine; Marielos Monzon of Prensa Libre, Guatemala. They are being honored for exceptional bravery in reporting the news, having risked their lives to report the truth about war, political corruption, human rights abuses and genocide. Magdalena Ruiz Guinazu, one of Argentina’s most distinguished journalists, will receive the IWMF's Lifetime Achievement Award. She hosts Magdalena Tempranisimo on Radio Mitre and writes a column for La Nacion newspaper.
Ann S. Moore, chairman and CEO Time Inc. and Bob Wright, vice chairman and CEO, GE, and chairman and CEO, NBC, are event chairs for the New York awards ceremony. Presenters include Jane Fonda, actress/activist/ philanthropist; Byron Pitts, correspondent, CBS News; David Remnick, editor, The New Yorker; and Barbara Walters, ABC news correspondent.
Peter Canellos, deputy managing editor and Washington bureau chief, The Boston Globe, and Anna Deavere Smith, actor and playwright, will join the IWMF for a special tribute to Elizabeth Neuffer, a 1998 Courage in Journalism Award winner from The Boston Globe, who was killed on May 9 in an automobile accident while covering the aftermath of the war in Iraq.
“This year’s Courage in Journalism Award winners have shown bravery in pursuing the news. Some face day-in, day-out threats while reporting on corruption and human rights abuses in their own countries. They are never safe, not even in their own homes. Others serve as witnesses to war, bringing alive the human face of conflict while dodging bullets, bombs and death threats,” said Judy Woodruff, prime anchor and senior correspondent at CNN and chair of the Courage in Journalism Awards. “We are all wiser and better informed about the world because of their work.”
JPMorgan Chase is the presenting sponsor of the Courage in Journalism Awards.
About the Recipients:
Anne Garrels, 52, foreign correspondent with National Public Radio in the United States. Garrels' latest assignment was the war in Iraq. At one point she was blown back into the elevator of the Palestine Hotel, where she was staying, when a nearby building was bombed from the air. At another, she watched as a cruise missile passed right in front of her window. When U.S. bombs fell on the hotel killing two journalists, she was only a few floors away. Her book about reporting from Iraq, Naked in Baghdad, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in September. Garrels has often put herself at risk to bear witness to conflict in the globe's hotspots, including Afghanistan, Chechnya, the former Soviet Union, Bosnia, Kosovo, Tiananmen Square and the Gulf War.
Tatyana Goryachova, 37, editor in chief of Berdyansk Delovoy, an independent weekly newspaper in Berdyansk, Ukraine. Goryachova has pursued stories about government corruption and malfeasance despite constant financial crises, harassment by the government and death threats to her, her daughter and her mother. In January 2002, an unknown assailant attacked Goryachova with hydrochloric acid, putting her eyesight at risk, most likely in retaliation for her reporting.
Marielos Monzon, 32, a columnist for Prensa Libre in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Monzon reports on the human rights violations that continue seven years after the end of a brutal civil war in which an estimated 200,000 people were killed in her country. Beginning in 1998, she has received continuous threats against her and her two children, yet she continues reporting.
Magdalena Ruiz Guinazu, whose career has spanned nearly 50 years, is one of Argentina's most distinguished journalists. As host of Magdalena Tempranisimo on Radio Mitre in Buenos Aires, she broadcasts to one of Argentina's largest audiences. In addition, she writes a column for La Nacion newspaper. Ruiz, 68, is a founder and current president of Asociacion Periodistas, an Argentine press freedom organization, and a former member of the IWMF board of directors. In 1984, with the return of democracy to Argentina, Ruiz was one of 10 members of the National Commission on the Disappearance of People (Comision Nacional por la desaparicion de Personas).
About IWMF
The International Women’s Media Foundation was launched in 1990 with a mission to strengthen the role of women in the news media worldwide, based on the belief that no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice. The IWMF network is more than 1,500 women in the media in more than 130 countries worldwide.
The International Women's Media Foundation created the Courage in Journalism Awards in 1990 to honor women journalists who have shown exceptional courage and bravery in the face of grave danger. Since 1990, 41 journalists have won the awards. For more information, please visit www.iwmf.org and click on the “Press Kit” bar on the homepage.
The 14th annual Courage in Journalism Awards will be held on Thursday, October 16, 2003, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City from noon – 2:00 p.m. The awardees will also be honored at ceremonies in Washington, DC on Tuesday, October 14th and in Los Angeles on October 21st.
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