Journalists feted at last night’s Committee to Protect Journalists banquet in the Waldorf-Astoria said they would not be deterred in their coverage of terrorism despite imprisonment and threats to their personal safety.
A black tie audience of more than 1,000 blue chip corporate execs, media execs and working press honored journalists worldwide who have endured “death threats, physical attacks, legal action, imprisonment or exile in the course of their work.”
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Singled out for concern was American/Iranian journalist Jason Rezaian, a correspondent for the Washington Post who has been imprisoned for 16 months in Iran on charges of espionage.
He has now been given a sentence for an undisclosed period of time. Iran has refused to provide details of the verdict. Remarks by some Iranian officials indicate he might be swapped for people imprisoned for violating sanctions against the country.
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The treatment of Rezaian is raising concerns that Iran can't be trusted to hold up its end of the deal to limit its nuclear program.
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International Press Freedom Awards were given last night to:
Zone 9 bloggers of Ethiopia, six of whom were arrested, imprisoned, and charged with terrorism in retaliation for critical reporting.
Zulkiflee Anwar “Ulhaque, “Zunar,” of Malaysia, CPJ’s first cartoonist awardee, who is charged with sedition and faces 43 years in prison for lampooning high-level abuse in the Malaysian government.
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| Robert Friedman, editor-at-large, Bloomberg News |
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| Kathleen Carroll, editor, Associated Press and vice chair of CPJ, with Jordan Wertlieb, president of Hearst TV |
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| Allan Dodds Frank, veteran journalist of TV and print |
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| O'Dwyer's photog Sharlene Spingler with Ben Smith, editor-in-chief, BuzzFeed |
Reporters aided by the Committee to Protect Journalists have said in past years that groups such as ISIS have found that one of the best ways to garner media attention is to murder journalists.
Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent and host of last year’s dinner, called ISIS “the depth of depravity” and “the most unspeakably brutal, atrocious group that we have seen in decades.”
ISIS has taken responsibility for recent attacks in Paris that killed 130 and more than 20 in Mali.
Malaysia, Paraguay, Syria, Ethiopia J’s Cited
Candido Figuerdo Ruiz, Paraguay, who is under death threats and has lived under 24-hour police protection for the past two decades because of reports on drug smuggling on the Brazil-Paraguay border.
“Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently,” a Syrian citizen collective and one of the few independent news sources that continues to report from inside the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital.
The recipients “braved threats from repressive governments, drug cartels and Islamic State,” said CPJ executive director Joel Simon. “They risk their personal safety to bring us the news.”
AP’s Kathy Gannon Gets Lifetime Award
Kathy Gannon, AP’s special correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan, was given the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in the cause of press freedom.
Gannon, the only Western journalist allowed by the Taliban to return to Kabul I during the U.S.-led coalition’s assault on Afghanistan, in 2005 authored I is for Infidel: From Holy War, to Holy Terror, 18 Years Inside Afghanistan.
Sandra Mims Rowe, CPJ chair, noted that Gannon reported in South Central Asia during periods of “extensive political turmoil and conflict.”
Security Was Tight
Security was tight at the dinner. Attendees were provided with color-coded wrist bracelets and necklace I.D.’s. Dogs sniffed bags and briefcases in search of explosives.
Only one reporter was allowed from any one news organization. They dined on cold cuts, provolone cheese and soft drinks in the balcony. More than 20 reporters and technicians were on the balcony. Most of them were technicians involved in videotaping the event.
Transcripts of the speeches are to be provided by CPJ athough it is not known when they will be available.
The dinner is alway held on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to minimize press coverage of the event.
One O’Dwyer reporter had received credentials for the event but another staffer was sent as an assistant in view of the current intense interest on past and predicted terror episodes.
However, CPJ would not relax its one reporter per medium policy.
The dinner probably raised at least a million dollars to top off the treasury which stood at $16.7 million in net assets as of Dec. 31, 2014.
Additional photo coverage from O'Dwyer's.
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