OPC Annual Awards Dinner to Honor Foreign Correspondents Under Threat

“Free Press Under Fire” is the theme of this year’s Dateline magazine, which will be distributed at the OPC’s Annual Awards Dinner on April 30. Two reporters with first-hand knowledge of the challenges and dangers facing international journalists today will be featured at the dinner, as well as the OPC’s efforts to improve training for those who report in crisis zones.

OPC President Marcus Mabry selected David Rohde, investigative reporter for Thomson Reuters, to receive this year’s President’s Award. While on leave from The New York Times to write a book about Afghanistan, Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008. Held captive for seven months in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Rohde managed to escape with the help of one his Afghan colleagues. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for his coverage of the massacre in Srebrenica, and shared a second Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“I want to honor you, your history, your spirit, your survival, your selfless concern for our profession and its practitioners,” Mabry told Rohde.

Rohde’s key role this year in crafting a new set of industry standards for freelancers working in danger zones was another important factor, indicating “how centrally I want to put those issues to the mission of the OPC,” Mabry said.

Kathy Gannon, special regional correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan for The Associated Press, will lead a moment of silence in the traditional Candlelighting Ceremony to honor journalists killed during the course of their work over the last year. Gannon was seriously wounded in Afghanistan last April when an attacker shot the car she was riding while en route to cover upcoming elections. She was riding with Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus, who was killed in the attack. She talks about the incident in an interview that is posted on our website.

Pulitzer Prize winner Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, will deliver the keynote speech. Baquet started his career in 1978 at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and worked for the Chicago Tribune before joining The New York Times in 1990. He also worked for the Los Angeles Times as managing editor and editor between 2000 and 2005. Baquet took over as executive editor at the Times in May last year. He won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1988 for leading a Tribune team that exposed City Council corruption.

Deborah Amos of NPR will present this year’s 22 awards in categories including news coverage, print, cartoons, photography, broadcast, books, commentary and multimedia. Amos covers the Middle East for NPR. She started her career at the network in 1977, and worked overseas as London Bureau Chief and correspondent in Jordan, where she won accolades for her coverage of the Gulf War in 1991. Amos worked for ABC’s Nightline and World News Tonight as well as PBS programs NOW and Frontline. She returned to NPR in 2003. In 2009, Amos won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University, and won Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.

The dinner will be held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Columbus Circle, and begins with a reception at 6:00 p.m., sponsored by multinational computer company Lenovo. Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz automobiles, is sponsoring a “Meet the Winners” reception immediately following the dinner.

Tickets for this year’s dinner are $250 for OPC members and $250 for a member’s guest; $750 for non-members. Table prices are $7,500 (Friend), $9,000 (Sponsor), $12,000 (Patron), $15,000 (Fellow). Dress for the event is black tie. For the first time, the Awards Dinner will be streamed live. Check the OPC website that day for the link.