THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • October 2013 Two Reporting Giants to Recount Chinese Civil War EVENT PREVIEW: OCTOBER 1 The two surviving American cor- respondents who covered China’s civil war from 1946 to 1950 will share their best eyewitness stories with OPC members and their guests on Wednesday Oct 1 at the 3 West Club at the Women’s National Re- publican Club, 3 West 51 Street in the Solarium Room. Reception be- gins at 6 p.m. and program at 7 p.m. Please note the change of location. This event will not be held at Club Quarters. Roy Rowan, a former OPC pres- ident who worked in China for the United Nations and then Time Life, and Seymour Topping, an OPC board member and the distinguished veteran of The New York Times who Global Broadcasters Vie for American Audience was working for The Associated networks led by moderator Jim Lau- Press during the war, will each tell EVENT PREVIEW: OCTOBER 16 rie. Laurie is an OPC member who three stories that capture the sweep One of the hottest topics in the was an NBC correspondent in Sai- of the war, from meeting Mao Tse- current media environment is inter- gon, an ABC correspondent who tung in remote Yenan province to national broadcasters who seek a established the first American TV observing defeated Nationalist Gen- place and influence in the American network news bureau in China, a eralissimo Chiang Kai-Shek flee the marketplace. Al Jazeera, the most director of the broadcast journalism mainland. aggressive, launched its new Ameri- department at University of Hong The event begins a year of com- can channel, Al Jazeera America Kong and recently a consultant to Al on August 20 in New York. China memorating the 75th anniversary of Jazeera English and CCTV News. Central Television launched CCTV the Overseas Press Club. Moderat- The panel discussion will take ing will be former OPC President America in February 2012 and plan place on Wednesday, October 16 and current OPC Foundation Presi- a further expansion in December. at the Ford Foundation East River (Continued on Page 2) Russia Today (RT) took on Larry Room, 320 East 43 Street. Joining King as a prime time host in June us will be Off-the-Record, a branch Inside. and have a strong YouTube follow- of the Foreign Policy Association, ing. BBC World News, which ex- People..........................................3-6 and the Society of Silurians. Regis- panded its U.S. distribution in 2012, tration begins at 5:30 p.m., reception People Remembered......................6 NHK of Japan, France 24 and others at 6 p.m. and the panel discussion at are vying for impact in the global 6:45 p.m. Bruce Dunning Remembered..........6 and American media space. RSVP and a photo ID to enter the The OPC will assemble a panel Barrett Brown Case.........................7 building are essential. Please call the of news executives, reporters and OPC office 212-626-9220 or e-mail New Books....................................12 media commentators from the new [email protected]. (Continued From Page 1) wholesale flight of Nationalist sol- publicly executed. dent William J. Holstein. “I am diers, who were abandoning their Topping, who was present for the absolutely honored to be there with equipment. It was the beginning of fall of Nanjing just before Shanghai two of my heroes and help them tell the end for Chiang. collapsed, also covered Chiang as he their stories,” he said. “This is a tru- Soon thereafter, Topping covered and his forces evacuated the main- ly historic event.” Holstein also cov- the Battle of Huai-Hai In January land to what was then called For- ered China but arrived 30 years after 1949, which was the decisive battle mosa, today called Taiwan. The war the end of the war. of the war. Some 550,000 of Chi- is widely seen as having ended in The stories that Rowan and Top- ang’s best troops were surrounded 1949, but there was a battle between and eliminated by the People’s Lib- ping will tell start in 1946 when the two sides in 1950 for control of eration Army. Topping was held un- Rowan was organizing convoys of Hainan Island and Topping covered relief supplies to both Nationalist der house arrest after he crossed into that as well. and Communist areas for the United Communist-held territory. Photographs from both men’s Nations. A bullet struck his wind- Rowan, although ill with typhoid collections will be on display. The shield, persuading him to resign and fever, covered the fall of Shanghai evening will be video-taped and go home. In Shanghai he stopped at later that year. Desperate Nationalist the hotel bar and met the Time-Life leaders trying to stop black market- photographed for posterity’s sake. bureau chief and was soon offered a ing and smuggling activities round- For reservations, contact Executive job. ed up suspects and paraded them Director Sonya Fry at 212-626-9229 Topping visited the fiery Com- through the streets. Then they were or email [email protected]. munist leader Mao in at his head- quarters in Yenan in November 1946 to make an assessment of whether No CQ Services Until Further Notice he could prevail against the much better-armed Nationalist forces. In November 1948, Rowan ob- Club Quarters Midtown at 40 West 45 Street, where tained a rare interview with Chiang Kai-Shek in Beijing and was as- the OPC is located, closed its food and beverage sured that the Nationalist defenses service during the summer. The restaurant and bar in Manchuria were holding steady. But when he and photographer will remain closed for the foreseeable future. Jack Birn reached Mukden, today called Shenyang, they witnessed the 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, Media Romesh Ratnesar Thomson Reuters Deputy Editor Daniel Sieberg EXECUTIVE THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Rebecca Bloomberg Head of Media Outreach DIRECTOR Toni Reinhold Blumenstein Azmat Khan Businessweek Google Sonya K. Fry Editor in Charge, Deputy Editor in Chief Senior Digital Producer New York Desk The Wall Street Journal Al Jazeera Martin Smith Minky Worden EDITOR Reuters President Director of Global Aimee Vitrak Paul Brandus Evelyn Leopold Rain Media Initiatives TREASURER West Wing Report Independent Journalist Human Rights Watch Dorinda Elliott United Nations Seymour Topping Global Affairs Editor Howard Chua-Eoan Emeritus Abi Wright OPC Conde Nast Traveler Former News Director Dafna Linzer Professor of Director ISSN-0738-7202 Time Managing Editor International Journalism Alfred I. duPont – Copyright © 2002 MSNBC.com Columbia University Columbia University Over seas Press Club of Awards America 40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • October 2013 • Page 2 PEOPLE... by Susan Kille [email protected] OPC SCHOLARS tween their captors and anti-regime chief of Al-Adwaa Nizar Manek, winner of the rebels. Two investigative reporters daily and a col- 2012 Harper’s Magazine Scholar- who have set standards for courage umnist for several ship in memory of I.F. Stone, is in and quality journalism will receive other publications. Egypt studying for a diploma in Knight International Journalism He is also the di- Modern Standard Arabic & Egyptian Awards: Roman Anin of the Rus- rector of programs Salih Colloquial Arabic sian opposition daily Novaya Gazeta at Teeba Press, a at Alexandria Uni- and Umar Cheema of The News, non-government organization that versity. He moved Pakistan’s largest English-language trains journalists in Sudan. The to Egypt after fin- daily. The awards dinner is Novem- award, which is administered by the ishing a Financial ber 7 in Washington and OPC mem- Global Media Forum and Reporters Times fellowship ber Nicholas Kristof will give the Without Borders (RSF), honors the in London and a Manek keynote address. memory of Peter Mackler, a vet- stint in an archi- eran journalist with AFP. The award val research project at Private Eye, a As the oldest international will be presented at the National satirical and investigative magazine awards in journalism marks its 75th Press Club on October 24. It honors in Great Britain. He has contributed year, the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes journalists who fight courageously to Barron’s, Africa Confidential and will honor four journalists and give and ethically to report the news in other publications. He is a graduate an overdue award to a fifth. The priz- countries where freedom of the press of the Columbia University Gradu- es, administered by the Columbia is either not guaranteed or not recog- ate School of Journalism and the University Graduate School of Jour- nized. London School of Economics. nalism, are given for outstanding re- porting about Latin America, often in PRESS FREEDOM WINNERS countries that do not respect freedom BEIJING: As the expansion of Richard Engel, chief foreign of the press.