NATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARDS SPOTLIGHT COURAGE, LETHAL VIOLENCE, INJUSTICE
& THREATS
“...journalism is not a crime.”
--Ahmed
Humaidan (pictured above).
GUEST BLOG—By the National Press Club member writers Mark Schoeff, Jr., Investment News and Will Lester, AOL.com
A
photojournalist jailed for doing his job. Two Associated Press veterans who
were attacked. A reporter in Illinois facing fines and jail time for not
revealing a source. A young scholarship student announcing he’s an undocumented
immigrant.
All these journalists - present and future - shared
the common traits of courage, talent and perseverance.
The National Press Club Journalism Awards Dinner on
Wednesday, July 30, celebrated their accomplishments and some of the best
journalism in the country in 2013.
One of the evening’s highlights was a message from
Ahmed Humaidan, a photojournalist from Bahrain in jail for his photos, who was
overseas winner of the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award. He was accused of
attacking a police station, but was only photographing it at the time. He has been
in jail since 2012 and was sentenced earlier this year to 10 more years in
jail.
“We, the photographers in Bahrain, worked very hard
to deliver the truth as it is, without disguising or overstating the events we
have witnessed,” Humaidan said in a statement read to the crowd at the Press
Club by Nada Alwadi, a cofounder of the Bahraini Press Association.
“The action of taking pictures and sharing them with
the world was very costly to me and my colleagues - journalists and
photographers,” he said. “But we were aware of the price of what we were doing.
And we have always believed that journalism is not a crime, so we were ready
for prison and prosecution.”
Humaidan called for journalists in Bahrain and
elsewhere to be freed and for “a media environment where no journalist or
photographer will be jailed for doing their work.”
The U.S. winner of the Aubuchon Press Freedom Award
was Joseph Hosey, a reporter for Patch.com, a national network of local news
sites. He was held in contempt of court last year by a judge in Will County,
Ill., who fined him $1,000, plus $300 a day for every day Hosey does not
disclose the name of a confidential source who provided police reports about a
double murder in Illinois. If Hosey loses the appeal, which is now pending, he
faces indefinite jail time for not divulging the source.
Hosey thanked the many people who have supported him
since being held in contempt, and especially his attorney.
Also at the dinner, NPC President Myron Belkind
presented the President’s Award to the late Anja Niedringhaus, the Pulitzer
Prize-winning photographer for The Associated Press, and her colleague AP
reporter Kathy Gannon. Niedringhaus was killed in Afghanistan on April 4 in an
attack that also wounded Gannon. The President’s Award is bestowed on special
occasions by the club president with the approval of the Club’s Board of
Governors.
“Anja, who was born in Germany and began working as a
photographer while at university, is recognized by her peers as one of the
bravest, most talented and accomplished photojournalists of her generation. She
truly believed in the need to bear witness,” Belkind said. “Sadly, she lost her
life doing it.”
He noted that Gannon, who is from Canada, has covered
the unrest in Afghanistan and Pakistan for The Associated Press for nearly
three decades. And he quoted John Daniszewski, AP's vice president and senior
managing editor for international news, about her expertise and dedication.
"Kathy Gannon is a brave and passionate
journalist whose expertise and deep knowledge and experience of both
Afghanistan and Pakistan have made her an indispensable authority on the
region,” according to Daniszewski.
“Anja and Kathy had worked together repeatedly in
Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, often focusing on the war's
impact on Afghan civilians,” Belkind said, with photos taken by Niedringhaus
that captured the human side of war scrolling by steadily on the screen behind
him. AP Political Editor David Scott accepted the awards on behalf of the wire
service.
The awards dinner intersected with a prominent policy
debate in Washington - immigration - when the winner of the Club’s scholarship
for journalism diversity announced that he is an undocumented immigrant.
“I decided to make tonight my own sort of coming out
story,” said Jose Valle, a graduate of First Flight High School in Kill Devil
Hills, N.C. Before his public announcement, Valle said that only his guidance
counselor, one friend and his family knew about his immigration status.
“I don’t know why I kept it secret for so long,”
Valle said to the audience. “It pushed me to work hard, but it hurt me, too.”
A North Carolina law requires undocumented immigrants
to pay out-of-state tuition at the state’s colleges and universities. Unable to
afford the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Valle will start his
post-secondary education at Durham Technical Community College. He said he
hopes to transfer to UNC in a couple years. The club scholarship, which totals
up to $10,000 over four years, will help him embark on his college path.
The Club also presented the $5,000 Richard G.
Zimmerman Scholarship to Daniel Wetter of Roseville, Calif., and the $5,000
Dennis and Shirley Feldman Fellowship to Charles Andrew Eckert of Maspeth, N.Y.
Wetter will attend George Washington University this fall to study political
communications, while Eckert will be a graduate student at the Columbia
University School of Journalism.
The Press Club crowd gave Valle one of the longest
standing ovations of the evening. And Valle’s speech lingered throughout the
evening. Other award winners mentioned him when they were at the podium.
“Thank you to Jose for speaking out and sharing his
story,” said Tim Murphy, a reporter at Mother Jones, who won the Angele Gingras
Humor Award.
Jen Judson, a reporter with Inside the Army who won
the Newsletter Journalism Award, said that she wants to see Valle return to the
Club’s Awards dinner as a winner in one of the categories.
“Jose, I hope to see you up here one day,” Judson
said.
NPC GUEST BLOGGERS:
Mark Schoeff, Jr. Investment News |
Will Lester AOL.com |
Pillar to Post Blog is a member of the National Press Club.
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