Holiday Party Kicks Off OPC's 75Th Anniversary Year
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THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • December 2013 Holiday Party Kicks Off OPC’s 75th Anniversary Year by Brian Byrd of World War II. And In 2014, the OPC will mark its on April 2, nine foreign 75th anniversary. As part of its dia- correspondents gathered mond jubilee, the OPC will hold a at the Algonquin Hotel’s series of events beginning with a Round Table in New holiday party in January that will York to form the OPC of kickoff the anniversary year at the America. This intrepid Club’s birthplace: The Roundtable group of men and wom- at the Algonquin Hotel on Tuesday, en launched an organi- January 7 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. zation whose presence Food, drinks and merriment will be and influence have been on hand as well as time to share sto- felt for the past 75 years. During this time, na- Senator John F. Kennedy addresses the ries about life as a journalist. Come 18th Annual Awards Dinner of the OPC. with a memorable reporting story, (Continued on Page 2) an OPC story, a story of courage or good luck. (See page 4 for details.) OPC Holds Two Panel Discussions Overseas The Club’s founding was in 1939, the year Lou Gehrig gave his “lucki- by Sonya K. Fry London recap page 3.) Both discus- sions attracted capacity audiences. est man alive” speech as he retired A Ford Foundation grant has en- from the New York Yankees, “Gone abled the OPC to take its message With the Wind” and “The Wizard abroad this year. It is an idea that PARIS RECAP: NOVEMBER 12 has been discussed for many years, of Oz” had theatrical releases and by Michael S. Serrill NBC Television began its broad- but there was never enough money On a rainy evening in Paris, some cast. That same year, Adolph Hitler to make it a reality. This November, 80 people gathered for an OPC spon- and the Nazis embarked on a series the OPC worked with the Frontline sored forum on the dangers of work- of transgressions that led to the start Club of London and the American ing in war zones around the world. University of Paris organizing pan- The panel was led by Time contribu- Inside. els on similar but nuanced forums, tor Vivienne Walt and CNN Interna- with Syria the focus of attention. tional correspondent Jim Bittermann, Bhutto Book Night Recap................2 The Paris panel was held at a par- both OPC members. Panelists in- ticularly vulnerable time. Two weeks cluded: Jerome Delay, the AP’s chief London Event Recap.......................3 before the November 12 discus- photographer for Africa; Fabio Buc- sion, two French broadcast journal- Awards Application Info ...................4 ciarelli, who has spent the past sev- ists were kidnapped and then shot in eral years going in and out of Syria; People........................................5-10 Mali. Also, several French journal- Aidan Sullivan of Getty Images and ists have been missing in Syria since Lucie Morillon of Reporters Without People Remembered....................10 the beginning of 2013. The audience Borders. Difficulties Covering China............11 talked about the dangers of reporting The consensus of the group: there and photographing and expressed has never been a more dangerous Members Who Covered JFK ........12 solidarity with missing colleagues. time to be a war journalist especially The London panel at the Front- in Syria. “The rules of engagement Stolley and Zapruder.....................13 line Club was attended by journal- have nothing to do with those in World War II, Vietnam, even Sara- Women Covering War Recap........14 ists who had just returned from Syria and were eager to exchange ideas jevo,” said Delay. “Combatants in New Books....................................16 on freelancing and its dangers. (See (Continued on Page 4) Muñoz Tries to Unlock Mystery of Bhutto’s Killing in Book EVENT RECAP: DECEMBER 4 cialists about the sloppy and lackadaisical police work that preceded Bhutto’s killing. He raised a series of ques- by Allan Dodds Frank tions about whether her assassination was practically in- OPC members helped pack the house at the beauti- evitable, if not planned by those in charge, since the au- ful Society of the Americas building on Park Avenue thorities in Pakistan ignored pleas from Bhutto, from the to listen to Heraldo Muñoz discuss the assassination of U.S. and elsewhere, for topflight security preparations to Benazir Bhutto as she was campaigning in Pakistan. insure her protection. Muñoz, a Chilean diplomat who was appointed by the As in any good mystery story, Muñoz tried to unravel U.N. to lead an international inquiry into Bhutto’s mur- the many potential motives by suspects inside and out- der, was discussing his new book, Getting Away With side of Pakistan. He marched through Benazir’s political Murder. Under questioning by Lally Weymouth, senior rivals, the Taliban, factions of the military and Pakistani associate editor The Washington Post and the last U.S. intelligence service, agents from other countries, among writer to interview Bhutto extensively, Muñoz outlined a others. His conclusion, reached delicately with the Paki- list of suspects while admitting investigators have never stan ambassador to the U.N. in the crowd, seemed to be cracked the crime. With telling details, Munoz told the that Pakistan was — and remains — a pretty treacherous crowd of diplomats, journalists and foreign policy spe- and mysterious place. (Continued From Page 1) in the past and to say also that you special lighting of the Empire State tions and their leaders rose and fell, have great responsibilities to meet Building in April to coincide with wars were declared and ended, and in the future.” For three quarters the Awards Dinner and a photo ex- of a century, the OPC continues to hibit of OPC award winners later in technological advances were made meet these responsibilities through the year. While this will be a year- throughout the world. Through all of its programs, convenings, awards, long remembrance of the Club’s this history, the OPC and its mem- scholarships and networks. When past, it will also be a celebration bers have been there to bear witness, the Columbus and Magellan of for- of its future. In a rapidly changing keeping generation after generation eign correspondents met on April 2, world of conflict and inspiring mo- informed. they created an entity to serve “the ments, OPC members will continue On August 5, 1960, Senator John interests of international journalists.” to capture stories as they unfold, giv- F. Kennedy, in his first speech since The OPC 75th Anniversary Com- ing them meaning and perspective, winning the democratic nomina- mittee is in the planning stages of while informing the world. Please tion for President, remarked that the many more events to take place in join us throughout 2014 to celebrate OPC “performed valuable functions 2014. Among those events will be a the OPC’s past, present and future. OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA • BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT SECRETARY Jane Ciabattari Santiago Lyon Charles Wallace PAST PRESIDENTS Michael Serrill Jonathan Dahl Freelance Writer VP and Director of Financial Writer EX-OFFICIO Assistant Managing Editor in Chief NPR.org, Daily Beast Photography David A. Andelman Editor WSJMoney Associated Press ASSOCIATE BOARD John Corporon Bloomberg Markets Deidre Depke MEMBERS Allan Dodds Frank ACTIVE BOARD Executive Editor Marcus Mabry Brian Byrd Alexis Gelber FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Jacqueline Albert- The Daily Beast Editor at Large Program Officer William J. Holstein Tim Ferguson Simon The New York Times NYS Health Marshall Loeb Editor U.S. Bureau Chief Martin Dickson Foundation Larry Martz Forbes Asia Politique Internationale U.S. Managing Editor Robert Nickelsberg Roy Rowan Financial Times Freelance Sarah Lubman Leonard Saffir SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Amar C. Bakshi Photojournalist Partner Larry Smith Abigail Pesta JD/MBA student Arlene Getz Brunswick Group Richard B. Stolley Freelance Journalist Yale University Editor-in-Charge Romesh Ratnesar Digital News Deputy Editor Daniel Sieberg EXECUTIVE THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Rebecca Thomson Reuters Bloomberg Head of Media Outreach DIRECTOR Toni Reinhold Blumenstein Businessweek Google Sonya K. Fry Editor in Charge, Deputy Editor in Chief Azmat Khan New York Desk The Wall Street Journal Senior Digital Producer Martin Smith Minky Worden EDITOR Reuters Al Jazeera President Director of Global Aimee Vitrak Paul Brandus Rain Media Initiatives TREASURER West Wing Report Evelyn Leopold Human Rights Watch Dorinda Elliott Independent Journalist Seymour Topping OPC Global Affairs Editor Howard Chua-Eoan United Nations Emeritus Abi Wright ISSN-0738-7202 Conde Nast Traveler Former News Director Professor of Director Copyright © 2002 Time Dafna Linzer International Journalism Alfred I. duPont – Over seas Press Club of Managing Editor Columbia University Columbia University America MSNBC.com Awards 40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 2 Dangers in Syria Are Particularly Acute Among Freelancers LONDON RECAP: NOVEMBER 19 by Abigail Pesta With some 30 journalists cur- rently missing in Syria, a group of veteran war correspondents met in London on November 19 to debate the risks of reporting from one of the most dangerous places on earth. The Sonya K. Fry event, sponsored by the Overseas Press Club of America and the Front- From left: Mani, Sean Ryan, Stuart Hughes, Emma Beals, Fabio Bucciarelli line Club, a London-based media club, zoomed in on topics ranging the incentive to go back,” he says. “I some reporters had posed as medics, from kidnappings to the heavy flow felt at that point it was irresponsible while another person in the audience of reporting from freelancers in the to give any freelancer in that position — a man who had served as a medic region.