Journalists to Honor CNN’s Amanpour

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent and anchor, will be honored Nov. 22 at the annual dinner of the Committee to Protect Journalists at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Amanpour will receive the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for “extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom.”

The black-tie dinner, which will raise more than $1 million from an audience of more than 1,000 leading journalist and corporate figures, also will honor:

Mahmoud Abou Zeid, a freelance photographer who is also known as "Shawkan," who has been in prison since his August 2013 arrest while covering the dispersal of a protest in Cairo. Egypt has become the second worst jailer of journalists worldwide. Shawkan, arrested for taking photos, is one of them.

Malini Subramaniam, an Indian freelance journalist who reports on human rights abuses, who fled her home state this year after being harassed and threatened. At least four journalists were behind bars in India, according to CPJ's 2015 census of jailed journalists.

Can Dündar, editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, who has been sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on charges of revealing state secrets. He is appealing.

Óscar Martínez, an investigative reporter for El Faro in El Salvador, who has been threatened in connection with his coverage of gang violence and extrajudicial killings in the country. El Salvador has highest murder rate in the world.

CNN’s Zucker Chairs Dinner

Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, is dinner chairman.

Amanpour was host of the event last year.

Kathy Gannon, AP’s correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan, was given the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award.

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 2015 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.

The dinner is always held on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to minimize press coverage. The New York Times has never covered the event with the exception of a photo or two from the evening by Bill Cunningham which runs on a social events page on Sunday. Most major media and executives of dozens of the biggest blue chip companies attend.

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 more than a million dollars to top off the treasury which stood at $16.7 million in net assets as of Dec. 31, 2014. CPJ is almost completely focused on problems journalists encounter abroad.

CPJ has publicized an RFP seeking a PR firm to help it with the 2017 edition of its annual Attacks on the Press book which will be published next April.

Amanpour Tangled with Russian TV Host

Amanpour, chair of the 2014 dinner, tangled with Anissa Naouai, host of the “In the Know” show on the Russian TV station. Naouai complained when part of an interview between her and Amanpour was removed. Naouai noted that Amanpour’s husband, James Rubin, was chief spokesperson for the U.S. State Dept. from August 1997 to April 2000 and wondered if that was a conflict of interest. CNN posted the full transcript following the complaint.