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Home , Anthony Shadid, Edward Wong, Gilles Jacquier, Jeff Fager, Peter Arnett, Richard Threlkeld

THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • MARCH 2012 Hitler From American Ex-Pats’ Perspective EVENT PREVIEW: MARCH 19 by Sonya K. Fry There have been many history books written about World War II, the economic reasons for Hitler’s rise to power, the psychology of Adolf Hitler as an art student, and a myriad of topics delving into the phenome- non that was Hitler. Andy Nagorski’s new book Hitlerland looks at this time frame from the perspective of American expatriates who lived in Andrey Rudakov Germany and witnessed the Nazi rise Andrew Nagorski to power. In researching Hitlerland, Na- Even those who did not take Hitler for the Kremlin. gorski tapped into a rich vein of in- seriously, however, would concede Others who came to Germany cu- dividual stories that provide insight that his oratory skills and charisma rious about what was going on there into what it was like to work or travel would propel him into prominence. include the architect Philip Johnson, in Germany in the midst of these Nagorski looks at Charles Lind- the dancer Josephine Baker, a young seismic events. berg who was sent to Germany in Harvard student John F. Kennedy Many of the first-hand accounts 1936 to obtain intelligence on the and historian W.E.B. Dubois. in memoirs, correspondence and in- Luftwaffe. Karl Henry von Wiegand, Andy Nagorski is an award win- terviews were from journalists and the famed Hearst correspondent was ning journalist with a long career at diplomats. There were those who the first American reporter to meet . He served as the maga- sensed early on how dangerous Hit- and report on Hitler. Other prominent zine’s bureau chief in , ler was and yet many more who American correspondents included Moscow, Rome, Bonn, Warsaw and dismissed him as a flash in the pan, Edgar Ansel Mowrer of the Chica- Berlin. He is currently Director of a political curiosity whose anti-Sem- go Daily News, OPC member Sig- Public Policy for the EastWest Insti- itism and grandiose plans to restore rid Schultz of the Chicago Tribune, tute, an international affairs “think Germany to glory were laughable. Louis Lochner and Angus Thuerner tank” with offices in New York, (AP), future TV anchor Howard K. Brussels and Moscow. He has au- Inside. . . Smith, William Shirer (CBS) and thored four previous books and writ- Richard Hottelet who was jailed by ten numerous articles for countless Rooney Memorial...... 2 the Gestapo in 1940. publications. He also won a 1978 One of the more interesting sto- OPC award for business reporting OPC President Letter...... 3 ries is that of William Dodd, a histo- for Newsweek International as well Scholars Luncheon Recap...... 4-7 rian from the University of Chicago, as two Citations. who served as ambassador to Berlin Hitlerland Book Night will take People Column...... 8-14 under Franklin Roosevelt. Dodd’s place on Monday, March 19 with a daughter Martha scandalized the reception at 6 p.m. and Nagorski’s People Remembered: Esper...... 14 embassy with her procession of lov- talk at 6:30 p.m. Books will be avail- Tribute to ...... 15 ers, her initial infatuation with Na- able for purchase and signing. RSVP zis and later her affair with a Soviet by calling the OPC 212-626-9220 or New Books...... 16 diplomat that turned her into a spy e-mailing [email protected]. Andy Rooney Memorialized by Family and Friends by Allan Dodds Frank — said her father liked to sign Longtime OPC member Andy off with: “Call if you get work.” Rooney would have loved the Janu- Martha, a librarian at the National ary 12 memorial service in Rose Institutes of Health, said her dad Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center star- loved calling at 4:55 p.m. to say ring his four children, his girlfriend he was checking to see if his “tax and his friends from CBS. dollars” were still at work. El- His son, Brian Rooney, flaw- len, a photographer and editor lessly emceed the ceremony with in London, recalled her father’s clarity and humor. Brian, a long- Brian Rooney paid tribute to his father. usual gambit was: “What time is time ABC News correspondent and it there anyway?” Brian Rooney soon-to-be CBS News contributor, lovingly showed that also treated everybody with some of his father’s favorite he, too, has his father’s talent as a storyteller and writer. family rules. As a supporter of the volunteer fire depart- “My father was a character, but it was not an act,” Brian ment that covered the Rowayton section of Norwalk, said. “What you saw was the same show that ran at the , where he lived, Rooney regularly dragged end of the dinner table.” his children out of bed to see local fires. Brian loved this After Rooney died at 92 of complications from a sur- one: “When your neighbor’s house is on fire, you have gical procedure just a month after retiring from CBS, his an obligation to go watch it burn down.” family began sifting through the mountains of memora- CBS News chairman Jeff Fager summed up Andy: bilia he had saved, including a CBS check for $6,000 “He didn’t know how to sugarcoat anything. What he never cashed and letters he had written to various top came out of him, under any circumstance, was pure un- CBS executives, letters so virulent or insulting that it was varnished truth as he saw it.” Fager continued: “Andy a wonder he was not fired, Brian said. To one new CBS was also the unofficial conscience of CBS News. If News President, Rooney wrote: “Keep in mind, I have something happened at CBS News he didn’t like, that more experience being bossed than you have bossing.” went against the finest traditions of our organization, he Andy Rooney’s powers of observation were the key would say so, even if it meant taking on the owner of the to his popularity, Brian said. “He knew his thoughts so company.” precisely that they were the thoughts of millions of other After being introduced as “Andy Rooney’s girl- people who did not realize it until he put it into words… friend,” Beryl Pfizer, who frequently attended OPC he saw the universal in the particular.” events with Andy, put the finishing touch on the celebra- Each of Rooney’s daughters: Emily, Martha and El- tion of his life. She said: “What strikes me is how lucky len recalled how he loved to tease them regularly by we all were to have him in our lives and how lucky I was telephone. Emily — a TV host and producer in Boston to have him in mine.” OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA • BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT SECRETARY Chrystia Freeland Tom Squitieri ASSOCIATE BOARD PAST PRESIDENTS David A. Andelman Jane Ciabattari Global Editor-at-Large Freelance Journalist ­MEMBERS EX-OFFICIO Editor Author/Journalist Thomson Bill Collins John Corporon World Policy Journal Gillian Tett Director, Public & Allan Dodds Frank ACTIVE BOARD Evelyn Leopold U.S. Managing Editor Business Affairs Alexis Gelber FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Ron Allen Independent Journalist Financial Times Ford Motor Company William J. Holstein Marcus Mabry Correspondent United Nations Marshall Loeb Editor at Large NBC News Seymour Topping Emma Daly Larry Martz International Herald Tribune Santiago Lyon Emeritus Communications Roy Rowan Rebecca Director of Professor of Director Leonard Saffir SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Blumenstein Photography International Human Rights Watch Larry Smith Michael Serrill Page One Editor Associated Pess Journalism Richard B. Stolley Assistant Managing Editor Columbia University Sarah Lubman Bloomberg Markets John Martin Partner EXECUTIVE Jonathan Dahl Writer/Editor Joel Whitney Brunswick Group DIRECTOR THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Editor-in-Chief Editor Sonya K. Fry Arlene Getz Smart Money Abigail Pesta Guernica Abi Wright Editor-in-Charge, Media Editorial Director Director EDITOR Thomson Reuters Adam B. Ellick Women in the World Alfred I. duPont- Aimee Vitrak Video and Print Journalist Columbia University TREASURER Toni Reinhold Awards OPC Jacqueline Albert- Editor in Charge, ISSN-0738-7202 Simon Tim Ferguson New York Desk ­Copyright © 2002 U. S. Bureau Chief Editor Reuters Over­seas Press Club of Politique Internationale Forbes Asia America

40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 2 International Board Meeting Begins Gala Preparations year about the earthquake in Japan other hat, serves as president of the LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT and the uprising on Tahrir Square. OPC Foundation; and Thomson- PARIS — The knock on the Indeed, for most categories, the Reuters newest editor-at-large, the door of my hotel room behind the award materials have all arrived brilliant editor Sir Harold Evans. Place Vendome in Paris came at online as well. The last time there Between the two, they are already a quarter to midnight on January were more than 500 entries was setting up a record year revenue- 30. It was Marcus Mabry, OPC 2007, but with today’s higher wise with sponsorship of our pre- First Vice President and Editor-at- entrance fees, the OPC realized an party booked by Lenovo and the Large at the International Herald all-time revenue record. All this is after-party by Thomson-Reuters Tribune and it was time for the a tribute to the ease of submission in tribute to Sir Harold. Many of monthly OPC board meeting. I was and to the perceived value they add our most generous regular guests spending a week here for the launch by distinguishing greatness in an are starting to come in and some in France of the magazine I edit, increasingly crowded and diverse welcome newcomers. World Policy Journal, and Marcus media universe. And with Executive Finally, there was the OPC had just braved the record Parisian Director Sonya Fry at the helm, all chill — part of an Arctic-style cold Foundation’s Scholarship Luncheon arrived with world-class efficiency in February at its customary venue wave sweeping across Europe at on the desktops of our judges. the moment. Braving temps in the at the Yale Club across from Grand All this led into a discussion of Central Station and where more than teens (Fahrenheit), catching one of our awards Gala on April 25, again the evening’s last metro trains from 200 guests and 14 award winners, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel representing seven scholarships the Tribune offices in the suburb of ballroom in Time Warner Center. Neuilly, he made it to our tiny hotel, and seven funded internships, The program is beginning to fill in: were awarded. The ceremonies the townhouse where Stendhal died Ted Turner — founder of CNN opened with a moving tribute in 1842. who in his lifetime truly transformed from GlobalPost Executive Editor Fortunately, his Times-issued the entire media landscape — has Charlie Sennott for his long-time Blackberry phone worked because accepted my invitation to receive friend, Anthony Shadid, whose my Skype connection didn’t. So the President’s Award for lifetime death inside embattled had as midnight struck and my wife achievement. He will accept and, I just been disclosed the previous nodded off, we dialed into the global strongly suspect, deliver a Turner- conference call number in New esque acceptance message that is not evening. The afternoon closed with York. Along with the Financial to be missed. We’ve continued to fill a stirring call to arms from Jeff Times’s Gillian Tett calling in in our Gala roster. After a personal Fager, Chairman of CBS News and from London, we were present- intervention from Marcus, Alison Executive Producer of “” and-accounted-for when the board Smale, the extraordinary executive who saluted the next generation meeting began — only the second editor of the International Herald of foreign correspondents. Some such session in club history when Tribune, has agreed to serve as 175 applicants from 72 colleges we had members dialing in from awards presenter — the centerpiece competed for the awards that will abroad. Bloomberg’s Michael of our evening. Alison is a career launch many of them into careers Serrill, second vice president and veteran of our craft, beginning as around the world. World Policy our yeoman awards chairman, East European bureau chief for Journal has been privileged to have presided in our absence. the . She covered published pieces of reportage from We began working through a the fall of the Berlin Wall, moved two former award winners. most exciting agenda, at the top to The New York Times where, as Two more months until our being a record number of entries for deputy foreign editor, she organized Awards Gala, so spiff up your the OPC Awards competition. Some much of the paper’s coverage of the tuxedos and gowns and mark 521 have been received — all, for wars in and before April 25 on your calendar! the first time, applied for online. moving to the IHT as managing For the first time, as well, the OPC editor, then upward to executive Cheers, has welcomed the submission of editor three years ago. Twitter posts — already emerging We are fortunate to have two as a new front line of innovative, dinner co-chairs this year: the deadline journalism. The first two indomitable master journo-marketer, such entries were received this Bill Holstein, who, wearing his David A. Andelman

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 3 Career-Starting Opportunities at Scholars Luncheon EVENT RECAP: FEBRUARY 17 by Aimee Vitrak At a time when the journalism industry is faced with bad news daily, the OPC Foundation Scholarship Lun- cheon provided some good news and even optimism as it celebrated 14 students to become tomorrow’s foreign correspondents. Each scholar had the opportunity to ex- plain to everyone in attendance at the annual Scholarship Luncheon at the Yale ballroom the stories they have al- Michael Dames ready told and the stories they’d like to pursue in places like Mumbai, the Chinese countryside, Uganda, Ghana Jeff Fager of CBS News gave the keynote address. and Jerusalem. On the morning after the announcement day journalism triple threat. of Anthony Shadid’s death in Syria, the Scholarship Lun- Sophia Jones of George Washington University be- cheon on February 17 was an opportunity for the jour- gan her interest in journalism at the age of 16 in nalism community to gather, reflect and regroup. The where she worked for a local publication. It was there, scholars’ enthusiasm for the craft of storytelling served she said, that she understood for the first time that “war as a reminder for how people are pulled into journalism, has many faces, not just men with machine guns,” when and why the pursuit of the truth may be a cause worth she witnessed a Nepalese girl hiding from gunmen. the risk. Catherine Ryan Gregory of the University of Oregon Last year’s keynote speaker Charles M. Sennott led said she liked telling a larger story through a smaller one the luncheon like a coach at halftime, calling Shadid, as she learned after seven weeks in Ghana where she whom he had worked with at the great- wants to return this summer and eventually publish a est Middle East correspondent of our generation and book about witchcraft around the world and how it re- went on to buoy the audience’s spirits. “His death is a flects on women’s rights. Georgia Wells of Stanford Uni- time to take stock and as editors to be incredibly vigilant versity said she returned to this winter after writ- about those to whom we send out in the field…and pre- ing her essay for the OPC Scholarship Foundation and pare our correspondents to work safely.” He asked for a went to Tahir Square where the population has changed moment of silence in honor of Shadid. from students to eight-year-old boys, one of whom told OPC Foundation President William J. Holstein then her that now was the “most noble” time in his life. began the scholarship presentation by saying the lun- Lauren E. Bohn from American University in Cairo cheon and awards served as a career starting place for gave an appropriate quote from legendary “60 Minutes” many of the winners who had two days of networking producer by including in her speech, “we opportunities at a reception hosted by Reuters for cur- don’t do stories on the issues, we do stories on the people rent and past winners at its Time Square headquarters the caught up in the issues.” Jeff Fager, Chairman of CBS night before the luncheon. On the morning of the lun- News and Executive Producer of “60 Minutes,” invoked cheon, scholars met with veteran international journal- that same quote during his keynote address. Fager said ists at a breakfast hosted by Holstein. Then there’s the that being based overseas was the “best job in my CBS luncheon itself, which had more than 200 people in at- career and the most important opportunity of my career.” tendance, some are on the hunt for an ambitious scholar He addeed, “the second best was landing at ‘60 Min- for an internship or foreign posting. After the luncheon, utes’ as a producer. I was confident, maybe a little cocky, scholars mingled with journalism luminaries like Jeff and went to Executive Editor Phil Scheffler looking for Fager and Charlie Rose and business cards and promises a raise. He suggested I should start looking for another of Facebook friending flew. The winners then toured The job.” He called Scheffler and Bill Owens who is now Ex- Associated Press and met with editors. “We are launch- ecutive Editor tough, “You need to be, in that job.” ing careers here today,” Holstein said. An award-winning journalist in his own right, Fager The scholars’ thank-you speeches were inspiring and became the first chairman of CBS News a year ago after left many in the audience in awe of the languages they more than 30 years of experience at every stage of the speak, including the language of technology with one TV news business, including 15 years at the executive scholar, Lauren Rosenfeld from the University of Cali- producer level, seven of those at the helm of “60 Min- fornia at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, able utes.” He has helped to usher in an international news to produce stories across all “platforms,” meaning video, renaissance at CBS News and said he believes if fasci- writing and multimedia, or what’s known as the modern- nating stories are produced, the audience will follow.

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 4 OPC Scholarship Luncheon Photos by Michael Dames

Roy Rowan with his 2012 winner, Beibei Bao.

From left: OPC Foundation President William J. Holstein, MANY THANKS Charlie Rose and keynote speaker Jeff Fager. The OPC Foundation is especially grateful for its Patrons and friends who supported the 2012 Scholarship Luncheon. Their contribu- tions ensure the continued success of our scholarship/internship program. Patrons Ally Financial Bloomberg The Coca-Cola Company CBS News Daimler IF Stone winner Nizar Manek with Rick Reuters MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s Magazine. Standard & Poor’s Friends Alcoa The Associated Press Edelman Public Relations Financial Times Ford Motor Company Pamela Howard Family Foundation/ Scripps Howard Foundation Knight-Bagehot Fellowship, Columbia University Jack Howard-Potter and Pamela Howard flank the Irene William S. Rukeyser Corbally Kuhn Winner Catherine Ryan Gregory. Walek & Associates

OPC Foundation scholars Beibei Bao and Rachel Will with Charlie OPC Foundation board member Bill Rukeyser Rose and Allan Dodds Frank. with Schweisberg winner, James Jeffrey.

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 5 2012 OPC Foundation Scholarship Winners in memory of I.F. STONE Endowed by John R. MacArthur and the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Trust; presented by Rick MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s Magazine Nizar’s passion is , no doubt fueled by his own family’s exodus from Uganda to escape Idi Amin’s economic war on Asians. With a law degree from the London School of Economics, he wants to

Michael Dames cover the potential for civil unrest in Nigeria. His essay was about South From left: Sophia Jones, Georgia Wells, Eva Dou, Elisa Mala, Beibei Bao, Africa’s “Secrecy Bill,” a clear at- James Jeffrey, Catherine Ryan Gregory, Max Seddon, Lauren Rosenfeld, tempt by the ruling African National Rachel Will, Jia Feng, Lauren Zumbach, Lauren E. Bohn, and Nizar Manek Congress to inhibit whistleblowers Following is a list of the 14 schol- James has already led the life of a and a free press. arship recipients for 2012, their af- foreign correspondent. As the son of filiations, the prize they won, the a British Army dentist he grew up in Catherine Ryan Gregory presenters, and brief descriptions various locations throughout Europe, University of Oregon of their winning applications. The a trend that continued when his own IRENE CORBALLY KUHN winners emerged from a highly com- time as an army officer took him SCHOLARSHIP to , Iraq and Afghanistan, Endowed by the Scripps Howard petitive selection process consisting Foundation; presented by of 175 applicants from 72 different among other places. An inveterate Jack Howard-Potter colleges and universities. traveler, his essay discussed what Catherine’s essay was about the he gleaned on a month-long study in fate of women accused of witchcraft Lauren Zumbach , chief among them, the frantic in Ghana, a story she covered as a re- energy and momentum both on the porter for The Accra Mail. Ghanese ALEXANDER KENDRICK city streets and in the countryside. women are subject to violence and INTERNSHIP exiled to witch camps for “looking Sponsored by Daimler; presented by Sophia Jones at a neighbor the wrong way or an- Han Tjan, Head of Corporate George Washington University gering a co-wife.” A graduate of the Communication for Daimler REUTERS SCHOLARSHIP University of Oregon now pursuing Lauren spent last summer at the Sponsored by Reuters; presented by a master’s degree in literary nonfic- Jakarta Globe where she covered Eddie Evans, Deputy Editor for News tion, she hopes to return to Ghana to ’s mismanaged emergency While only a college junior, So- cover this and other stories of Afri- care system. In her essay, the Prince- phia has experience as a freelance can life for western audiences. ton undergrad discussed how its inef- journalist in the Middle East and fectiveness was harming not only its Africa. This summer she has an in- Lauren E. Bohn residents but also its plans for global ternship in the Reuters bureau in Ra- American University in Cairo development. Fluent in French, Lau- mallah. Currently studying Arabic H.L. STEVENSON INTERNSHIP ren has the Foundation’s first intern- in Cairo, Sophia aims for a career as Funded by the Gamsin family and ship with Forbes magazine and will a . Her winning sponsored by Stevenson family and spend the summer with Forbes- essay detailed the chilling story of friends; presented by Sharon Gamsin in Mumbai. a bus ride through an Israeli check- Lauren is currently in Cairo point where her burka-clad seatmate studying Arabic as part of her Ful- James Jeffrey hid under her feet and prayed. bright grant and combing the coun- University of Texas at Austin tryside for stories of af- DAVID R. SCHWEISBERG Nizar Manek tershocks. A graduate of NYU with a MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP Columbia University Graduate master’s degree from Northwestern, Sponsored by the Schweisberg Family; School of Journalism she wrote about the plight of Egypt’s presented by Matthew Schweisberg, HARPER’S MAGAZINE Coptic Christians who fear their mi- David’s brother SCHOLARSHIP nority status in a Muslim country is

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 6 now even more imperiled, a story omy. She is interested in the inner the Beijing bureau and an exchange she first covered for GlobalPost. A workings of the financial world and student at Shih Hsin University in multimedia journalist, Lauren has their effects on peoples’ lives. She Taipei, Eva is confident she has the an OPC Foundation internship in the has an OPC Foundation internship in language and cultural skills to suc- AP bureau in Jerusalem. the Reuters bureau in Beijing. ceed as a correspondent in China. Fluent in Mandarin and conversant Max Seddon Beibei Bao in French, she wrote about high un- Columbia University Columbia University employment among China’s recent Graduate School of Journalism Graduate School of Journalism and college graduates and the largely in- STAN SWINTON INTERNSHIP School of International effective measures China has taken Endowed by the Swinton Family; pre- and Public Affairs to combat the issue, if only to limit sented by Helen Swinton, ROY ROWAN SCHOLARSHIP the potential of political unrest. Stan’s widow Endowed by family, friends and Fluent in Russian, Max took a admirers; presented by Roy Rowan Rachel Will year off his studies at Oxford to Pursuing dual graduate degrees University of Southern California spend a year at the Moscow Times in journalism and international fi- JERRY FLINT INTERNSHIP where he became the only English- nance policy, Beibei intends to de- FOR INTERNATIONAL speaking art critic in Moscow. His vote her career to producing quality BUSINESS REPORTING essay was about a Belarusian art- business news, the kind that ben- Endowed by family and friends; pre- ist and nationalist, ironically named efits the public by improving mar- sented by family friend Alex Pushkin, and his quixotic cru- ket transparency. She has an OPC Allan Dodds Frank sade against collective farm fascism. Foundation internship in the Reuters Having already interned in Hong Also proficient in French, Max will bureau in . In her essay, she Kong and Jakarta, the college senior return to Moscow as an OPC Foun- wrote about the under-reported issue will next travel to Malaysia where dation intern in the AP bureau. of Chinese debt, both at the local and she has an OPC Foundation intern- national level, and the risks it poses ship in the Reuters bureau in Kua- Georgia Wells to China’s economic health. lar Lumpur. Rachel fell in love with Stanford University this part of the world from the first EMANUEL R. FREEDMAN Elisa Mala “sticky-humid-exhilarating breath.” SCHOLARSHIP Columbia University In her essay, she wrote about China’s Endowed by family; presented by his FLORA LEWIS INTERNSHIP “stadium diplomacy” in Costa Rica, daughter Alix Freedman, Global Ethics Endowed by the Pierre F. Simon where it has now contributed to the Editor of Reuters Charitable Trust; presented by Flora’s When the protests turned to revo- friend Jacqueline Albert-Simon building of 85 sports facilities. lution in Egypt, Georgia “couldn’t The daughter of Thai immi- bear to not be in Tahrir Square.” She grants and Jewish converts, by five, Lauren Rosenfeld took time from her graduate work Elisa was fluent in English, Thai University of California at Berkeley in journalism at Stanford and flew and Hebrew. While still determined Graduate School of Journalism to Cairo, a city where she had pre- to graduate from college, she has al- THE WALTER & BETSY viously studied Arabic. Now fluent, ready collected 300 bylined articles CRONKITE SCHOLARSHIP she worked her sources to find the in 15 countries on three continents. Supported by CBS News and friends; spokesman for the Muslim Brother- Her essay described her coverage of presented by CBS News president hood and endured his rants to get a the bombing in Oslo that led to her David Rhodes story, the subject of her essay. front page story in The New York From the first documentary she Times. Elisa has an OPC Founda- created in Chili with little more than Jia Feng tion internship in the AP bureau in the equipment she carried, Lau- Johns Hopkins University School of . ren has had a love affair with Latin Advanced International Studies America. Fluent in Spanish, she THEO WILSON SCHOLARSHIP Eva Dou wrote about the Voices of Kidnap- Sponsored by donations from family and University of Missouri ping radio show, where the families friends; presented by Barbara Burns S&P AWARD FOR ECONOMIC of Colombian kidnap victims send In her essay, Jia makes a compel- AND BUSINESS REPORTING messages of hope and maintain some ling argument that if China accedes Endowed by Standard & Poor’s; semblance of contact with loved to American pressure and appreci- presented by Bob Arnold, S&P Vice ones. A video producer and multime- ates its currency, the impact would President, Global Editorial dia journalist, she is able to produce be harmful to the American econ- As a former Reuters intern in content across all platforms.

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 7 PEOPLE...

The People column was written by among American officials Susan Kille. For news tips, e-mail over the Burmese mili- [email protected]. tary’s offensive against the Kachin in northern OPC FOUNDATION SCHOL- . ARS: Leah Finnegan, winner of the 2010 Stan Swinton Scholarship, WINNERS left the Huffington Post to join the David Rohde, a two- op-ed page of The New York Times. time Pulitzer Prize win- “Couldn’t have done it without my ning author and foreign OPC experience, naturally,” said affairs columnist, was Finnegan in an e-mail to Founda- named by the Interna- World Press Photo of the Year was awarded to tion Executive Director Jane Reil- tional Press Institute as Samuel Aranda, a Spanish freelance photogra- ly. After she won her scholarship, its 63rd World Press Free- pher. Here, a woman holds her wounded son in the Foundation sent her to Cairo on dom Hero. The award her arms, inside a mosque used as a field hospi- an internship with The Associated recognizes contributions tal by demonstrators against the rule of President Press. defending and promoting , during clashes in , on 15 October 2011. Alex Pena, who in 2011 won the press freedom, especially, first Walter & Betsy Cronkite Schol- but not only, involving re- arship last February, reported in Jan- sistance or bravery under important, that women played a uary he filed his first post graduation harsh conditions. Rohde spent more crucial part in this revolution.” story as a “professional journalist” than seven months in captivity in following his December graduation the mountains of Afghanistan and PRESS FREEDOM from Florida Gulf Coast University Pakistan after members of the Tali- “We mark with sadness and deep in Fort Myers. He is in East Africa ban kidnapped him and two Afghan concern the first anniversary of our working as a freelancer and scored colleagues in November 2008. He letter to you about your govern- his first assignment in South Sudan escaped in June 2009. ment’s repression of freedom of the for ABC News. “Thank you again The IPI honor was announced press in your nation,” Tom Squitieri for all the support the OPC has given January 17 and will be presented and Larry Martz of OPC’s Free- me, and I look forward to being in during the group’s 2012 World Con- dom of the Press Committee wrote touch!” Pena wrote in an email. gress, set for June 23-26 in Port of January 6 to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sisi Tang, who won the 2011 , Trinidad and Tobago. prime minister of . The letter David Schweisberg Scholarship, has said at least “80 journalists remain joined Reuters in Hong Kong as a u jailed for alleged terrorism-related reporting intern, covering politics charges that lack foundation” and and general news. She most recently Samuel Aranda, a Spanish decried the continuing case against interned in Hong Kong on an OPC freelance photographer working Nedim Şener, the 2010 World Press Foundation grant. In her winning es- in Yemen, was awarded the 2011 Freedom Hero of the International say, the 2011 Northwestern graduate World Press Photo of the Year for Press Institute, and 13 other defen- wrote about the environmental con- his picture of a burqa-clad woman dants on charges related to abetting a sequences of mining in South Afri- holding her wounded son in her terrorist organization. ca’s West Rand. arms at a mosque in Yemen that The letter ended: “Your Excellen- Edward , who won the was being used as a field hospital cy, we ask that Turkey end the law- David Schweisberg Scholarship in by demonstrators against the rule suits, incarcerations and court sen- 1998, continues a distinguished line of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. tencing targeting journalists, and that of coverage, ranging far and wide Manoocher Deghati, Middle East freedom of the press be permitted to from his posting in China. After a regional photo director for The take root and flourish in your coun- weeklong reporting trip in northern Associated Press, was a judge in try. Until Turkey gets its own house Myanmar, Wong landed a front page the contest and said: “The photo is in order, it will never be a fully cred- story January 20 in The New York the result of a very human moment, ible leading country advising others Times about human rights concerns but it also reminds us of something in the region what to do.”

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 8 BEIJING: After a 16-month second case in a month targeting the programmer whose photo uploading detention and following a closed trial media. In December, two Swedish software was used by a porn website nine months ago, Li Tie, a Chinese journalists were sentenced to 11 without his knowledge. Information writer and activist, was sentenced years in jail for entering Ethiopia technology student Vahid Asghari, on January 18 to 10 years in prison illegally and aiding a rebel group, 24, faces death for allegedly hosting for subversion of state power. The prompting anger among human a pornography network. Ahmadreza evidence against Li, 52, included rights groups and concern over media Hashempour, who is 40 and membership in the opposition group freedom. Alemu is a columnist for holds a doctorate, was sentenced China Social Democracy Party, the Amharic-language weekly Fitih to death after being charged with his comments on websites and a and Taye was deputy editor of now- “membership in anti-religion and collection of essays that took issue defunct Awramba Times. U.S.-based blasphemous websites.” with the government. Tom Squitieri Elias Kifle, whose pro-opposition and Larry Martz of the OPC’s website www.EthiopianReview.com u Freedom of the Press Committee often criticizes the government, was joined other media advocacy tried in absentia and sentence to life TEHRAN: A revolutionary court groups in criticizing the sentence. on similar charges. on February 7 sentenced Mehdi They wrote to Hu Jintao, president Khazali, editor of the Baran blog, of China, and Wen Jiabao, prime to 14 years in jail, 10 years of minister, noting that before China internal exile and 70 lashes. He was won the right to stage the Olympic arrested on January 9 for the third Games “your government promised time in less than two years. Khazali reforms for personal freedoms, is the son of Ayatollah Abolghasem to allow unfettered reporting, Khazali, an influential member of the and to soften your harsh human Council of Guardians of the Iranian rights crackdowns. Now, you have Constitution for the past three sentenced a journalist to ten years Yoani Sánchez decades. Medhi Khazali’s blog is no imprisonment for doing the very longer accessible. things you promised to permit.” HAVANA: Prominent Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez was denied SANTO DOMINCO, D.R.: permission to leave her country Johnny Alberto Salazar was after she was granted a visa by the convicted January 18 to six months Brazilian Embassy in January to in jail and ordered to pay a $26,000 attend a film festival. “I feel like fine for defaming Pedro Baldera, a hostage kidnapped by someone a lawyer who also directs a local who doesn’t listen nor provide human rights organization, news explanations. A government with reports said. Salazar runs Vida FM a ski mask and a gun in a holster,” Protesters hold a banner that reads radio station and the news website tweeted Sánchez on Feb. 3 after ‘for Hrant, for justice’ outside the court in Istanbul. Vida Dominicana in the northern the Cuban government denied her town of Nagua. Salazar had accused request to travel to . She said Baldera of using the organization it was the 19th time Cuban officials INSTANBUL: An Istanbul to defend criminals with ties to have turned down her request to court on January 17 acquitted 19 drug traffickers. Baldera denied leave. As in the past, officials gave men of conspiring to kill Turkish- the accusation and filed a criminal no reason for the rejection. Armenian journalist Hrant Dink defamation complaint in July. An and gave one man a life sentence for appeal is planned. TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme court instigating the January 2007 murder. in January confirmed death sentences The suspected shooter, a teenage ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: for three Internet advocates, news ultranationalist named Ogün Samast, Ethiopian journalists, Woubishet reports said. Saeed Malekpour, a was sentenced in July to 23 years in Taye and Reyot Alemu, were 35-year-old Canadian resident who prison. Dink’s allies say there was sentenced on January 26 to 14 years was imprisoned in October 2008 a wider conspiracy. Fethiye Çetin, in jail and an exiled blogger was while visiting his dying father in Iran, lawyer for Dink’s family, said the sentenced to life imprisonment on claims he was tortured into confessing ruling “means a tradition was left charges of conspiring with rebel that he developed and promoted porn untouched: the state tradition of groups against the government, the websites. His family said that he is a (Continued on Page 10)

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 9 (Continued From Page 9) Correa has repeatedly clashed with Fabricio Correa, the president’s older journalists. Two decisions in February brother. President Correa denied political murders.” Attorneys for against Ecuadorian journalists knowledge of the contracts and sued. Dink asked in February that the in cases brought by Correa were An appeal is planned. Istanbul Deputy Chief Prosecutor’s widely criticized by international Office file criminal cases against 24 press groups, including the OPC. MURDERS public officials for their alleged role Jeremy Main and Larry Martz of Christopher Guarin, 41, a radio in Dink’s murder. the Freedom of the Press Committee commentator who purchased time wrote Correa protesting both cases as on Radyo Mo Nationwide and BANGKOK: Indonesian the publisher of local newspaper authorities detained Czech journalist well as a measure going into effect next year that would limit reporting Tatak News, was shot and killed Petr Zamecnik on February 8 and by gunmen on a motorcycle while then deported him for reporting about candidates for office. On February 16, Ecuador’s driving home after his evening from a restricted area of the country broadcast on January 5 with his without official permission. He was highest court upheld a criminal libel conviction against El Universo, wife and young daughter in General arrested in the West Papuan town Santos City on the southern island of Manokwari after photographing one of the country’s most widely read newspapers; the three brothers of Mindanao, news reports said. His an independence rally, news reports wife was injured. said. Foreign journalists entering who own the paper, Carlos, César West Papua and neighboring Papua, and Nicolas Pérez Barriga; and u home to an insurgency against an editor, Emilio Palacio. Correa Indonesian rule, require special sued after Palacio wrote a column in The January 6 murder of Raul permits from the foreign affairs and February 2011 in which he repeatedly Quirino Garza, a Mexican journalist communication ministries, as well as referred to Correa as “the dictator.” who worked for The Last Word in from the local police. All four were convicted in July Nuevo León, spurred a January 16 and sentenced to three years in letter from the OPC’s Freedom of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: jail and fines totaling $40 million. the Press Committee to Mexican Hamza Kashgari, a columnist for Lawyers have said the fines could President Felix Calderon saying that Al-Bilad, was forcibly repatriated bankrupt the newspaper. The Garza’s death follows 10 violent February 12 by Malaysian authorities ruling exhausts El Universo’s murders of journalists in 2011 – all to Saudi Arabia. He had fled Saudi legal appeals in Ecuador but the unpunished. Jacqueline Albert- Arabia and a possible death sentence case is under review at the Inter- Simon and Larry Martz, noted that following Twitter posts deemed American Commission on Human the committee wrote Calderon twice insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. Rights, part of the Organization of in 2011 about previous murders He reportedly was on his way to American States. “listed still supposedly under request asylum in investigation, but with no published when he was arrested at the Kuala results. What progress has been Lumpur International Airport. His made in each of them?” Garza, 30, lawyers won an injunction against died after unknown gunmen fired 18 deportation from a Malaysian High bullets into him as he was driving Court judge but Kashgari was sent near Monterrey in Nuevo León. back to Saudi Arabia. In a letter to the crown prince of the Kingdom u of Saudi Arabia and to the principal Journalists Juan Carlos Calderon, private secretary to the prime minister left, and Christian Zurita Gilles Jacquier, 43, a journalist of Malaysia, Kevin McDermott and for the French public broadcaster Larry Martz of OPC’s Freedom France2, was killed January 11 while of the Press Committee denounced On February 7, a civil court in covering a pro-regime rally in . the blasphemy charge, the forced Ecuador ordered journalists Juan Jacquier, an award-winning foreign repatriation and “the disgraceful Carlos Calderon and Christian correspondent, was traveling with conspiracy” by the two countries to Zurita to pay Correa $1 million each reporters when the group was caught deny Kashgari “his right as a human and an additional $100,000 for legal in a rocket explosion. Eight Syrians being to think and speak freely.” costs in damages for The Big Brother, were also killed. Foreign journalists a book that details government have been banned from Syria since QUITO, Ecuador: Since taking contracts worth about $170 million March 2011. Jacquier was with a office in early 2007, President Rafael awarded to businesses linked to group of 12 journalists invited on a

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 10 government-authorized trip to Homs. Two Journalists Killed in Syria Shelling u Marie Colvin, a veteran war Wisut ‘‘Ae’’ Tangwittayaporn, correspondent who wore a rakish 44, a reporter and owner of the eye patch to cover a shrapnel inju- newspaper Inside Phuket in Thailand, ry, and French photojournalist Rémi was shot and killed January 12 by two Ochlik, died February 22 when men on a motorcycle while driving government forces shelled a make- in Phuket with his wife, news reports shift media center where reporters said. He died from gunshot wounds were working to cover a bombard- Marie Colvin, left, and Rémi Ochlik to the shoulder, chest, and throat ment of that started February 4. but his wife was unharmed. A local Colvin, 56, was from East Nor- police official said Wisut was likely wich, New York. She was not well known to the American public but she targeted for his reporting on a series was a legend in Britain, where she spent more than 25 years working of controversial land claims. Police for the Sunday Times as a foreign correspondent specializing in reporting arrested one suspect and another from the world’s most dangerous places. She lost her left eye in 2001 in later surrendered but two more are Sri Lanka, while cover- being sought. ing the conflict between the government forc- u es and the rebel Tam- il Tigers. Two gunmen killed Mukarram Ochlik, 28, was con- Khan Aatif, a freelance broadcast sidered one of the fin- reporter, on January 17 as he left a est talents of a new mosque in Shabqadar, Pakistan, fol- generation of photogra- lowing evening prayers. A corre- pher-reporters. In Jan- spondent for the private TV station uary he won the World Dunya News, Aatif also worked for Press Photo award for Deewa Radio, a Pashto-language General News for his A photo from Ochlik’s World Press Photo award. Here, a young Libyan shows the gun he has just service of Voice of America. Taliban coverage of the conflict stolen from the compound of Libyan leader Colo- spokesmen took responsibility for in . nel Muammar Gaddafi; September 23, 2011. the killing. Kevin McDermott and violence escalates in Africa’s most came the third leader of Shabelle Larry Martz of the OPC’s Free- populous country. Enenche Godwin Media Network, the leading inde- dom of the Press Committee wrote Akogwu, 31, a television reporter pendent broadcaster in Somalia, to Pakistan President Asif Al Zadari for independent station Channels on January 20 urging “officials in be killed in as many years when he TV and a contributor to Reuters, Pakistan to take vigorous action to was ambushed January 28 by un- was gunned down on January 20, find and prosecute our colleague’s known gunmen while trying to interview witnesses and shot five murder, but we are too freshly aware of bombings that killed scores of that only last week, an official com- times in the head people in the northern city of Kano. and chest as he mission set up to investigate the A day before, Nansok Sallah, 46 and murder of Saleem Shahzad last was entering his an editor for the government-owned home. May, announced that it had no clue radio station Highland FM, was Nicknamed who might have been behind his as- found dead, facedown in a shallow “Fantastic,” Abdi sassination — despite worldwide stream, not far from a military Hassan Osman was the producer Abdi at the studio awareness that Shahzad was killed checkpoint near Jos. The Committee in Mogadishu, in retaliation for his reporting on the to Protect Journalists has called for and presenter of infiltration of Pakistan’s military by an investigation, saying assassination three news pro- Islamic extremists.” is suspected because valuables were grams and in the weeks before his found on Sallah’s body. murder had aired investigative re- u ports detailing alleged corruption at u Mogadishu’s seaport and the region- Two Nigerian journalists were al administration. killed within a week as terrorist Hassan Osman Abdi. 29, be- (Continued on Page 12)

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 11 (Continued From Page 11) Times sent the OPC and its Freedom editor-in-chief in January 2007 after u of the Press Committee a thank-you a spell as global managing editor. note for opposing the U.S. govern- He became chairman, Thomson ment’s appeal of court decisions Reuters China, Mazhar Tayyara, a videographer quashing subpoenas to force Risen in February 2011 and photojournalist who contributed to testify against a former CIA of- when Stephen to Agence France-Presse, The ficer accused of leaking national se- Adler became Guardian and Die Welt, was killed curity secrets. Risen wrote in Janu- editor-in-chief. February 4 by government forces’ ary: “I’ve been on a book leave, and “I loved being fire in Homs, Syria. He died while just returned to The Times, and just editor-in-chief; reporting from the Al-Khaldiyeh found in the mail a copy of the let- I’ve had a blast neighborhood when government David Schlesinger ter you wrote in October to Attorney being Chairman, forces shelled the district, news General Holder concerning my case. China; I’m happy to be able to end reports said. As Tayyara, 24, assisted I apologize for not seeing it earlier. it like this,” he wrote in a memo to people injured in the blast, “a second I want to express my deepest grati- Reuters staff members. volley of shells fell and he was hit,” tude…. Your support means a great a friend told AFP. deal to me. My fight with the gov- BANGKOK: Rodney Tasker, u ernment has turned into a marathon one of the bright journalistic lights legal battle. The Justice Department of the Far Eastern Economic Review in its glory days, seemingly The body of Brazilian journalist has now appealed Judge Brinkema’s disappeared after the Hong Kong- Mario Randolfo Marques Lopes ruling to the Fourth Circuit Court of based magazine, then owned by Dow was found February 9 in the city Appeals, which will hear the case Jones, closed in 2009. But Derek of Barra do Piraí in Rio de Janeiro sometime in the next few months. Williams, once a cameraman for state. Randolfo, 50, was the editor- But fighting on will be easier know- CBS who is now based in Bangkok, in-chief of the news website Vas- ing that I have the support of leaders tracked down Tasker in Lampang souras na Net. He survived an at- in journalism like you.” Province, a remote area of Thailand, tack last July where a gunman burst and sent an email describing what he into the newsroom and shot him u found. Tasker, who must be about in the head, leaving him in a coma 70, is suffering some sort of memory for three days. After he recovered, Mort Rosenblum, an OPC problem. “His short-term memory he worked from home. He and his member and a former editor of the is pretty much gone, so extended companion were abducted from his International Herald Tribune, re- conversations got quite circular,” home and both were shot to death. cently reported in with an update. Williams wrote. “He could remember Randolfo had frequently accused lo- Rosenblum, winner of OPC’s 1989 some events and people from a cal officials of corruption, according Hal Boyle Award, has launched long way back, yet it is was a bit to news reports. Reporting Unlimited on Facebook, with the goal of organizing training frightening at how he had forgotten u for journalists “who want to get it (or appeared to have, anyway) some right.” This spring, he will teach In- fairly major milestones in his life.” Tasker is living with a Thai family, Brazilian journalist Paulo ternational Reporting at the Univer- who said a doctor Roberto Carlos Rodrigues, who sity of Arizona. had diagnosed went by the name Paulo Rocaro, was Alzheimer’s. driving home late at night on February u “Anyway, I am 12 through the center of Ponta Porã very happy we when he was shot dead late by two David Schlesinger, chairman of made the effort to assailants on a motorcycle. The Thomson Reuters China and a former Rodney Tasker see him, and it was gunmen reportedly fired 12 times, member of the OPC Foundation very clear to us, as Rodney’s eyes with at least five bullets hitting the board and OPC board (2001-2005), sparkled during conversations about journalist. A police investigator told is leaving Thomson Reuters in the fun things he was able to recall, Brazilian media that the journalist’s August. Schlesinger, 51, joined that he was happy to see us also,” murder showed clear signs of being a Reuters in 1987 as a correspondent said Williams, who traveled with targeted attack. in Hong Kong. From 1989 to 1995 he managed Reuters editorial operations other people. “When I mentioned UPDATES in , China, and the Greater Saturday morning tennis, his eyes lit James Risen of The New York China region. He was appointed up and he asked, ‘Is that still going

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 12 on?’ He reckoned he could still get He said Reuters believes there is an out on the court and have a good hit, opening for “a sophisticated, well- but sadly, that is unlikely to happen.” designed magazine that doesn’t dumb down” its financial, business and foreign policy coverage. u

The Knight-Bagehot Fellowship Max Desfor and Shirley Belasco in Economics and Business er photo chief at U.S. News & World Journalism is accepting applications Report. He covered World War II until March 1 from journalists who and the for AP, winning Aleksei A. Venediktov want to enhance their understanding the Pulitzer Prize in 1951 for his shot and knowledge of business, of Korean refugees swarming across MOSCOW: Aleksei A. economics and finance in a year- a bombed-out bridge over the Tae- Venediktov remains editor in chief long, full-time program administered dong River. of radio station Ekho Moskvy in by the Columbia University Graduate It was the second marriage for the Moscow, but he stepped down School of Journalism. Fellows take bride and groom. Both their previous February 14 from the station’s board courses at Columbia’s graduate spouses are deceased. They plan to of directors after its government- schools of journalism, business, law honeymoon in Delray, Florida. controlled owners announced and international affairs; participate changes in the board’s membership, in off-the-record seminars and dinner including the removal of its only meetings with corporate executives, PEOPLE REMEMBERED two independent members. Prime economists and academics; and Minister Vladimir Putin had recently attend briefings and field trips to rebuked the station for its criticism media companies and financial of the Kremlin. In 2008, Venediktov institutions. Fellows receive free was the last winner of the OPC tuition plus a stipend to offset living Artyom Borovik Award. expenses.

PYONGYANG, NORTH BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: KOREA: The Associated Press The International Reporting Project became the first international news is accepting applications from , who cov- organization with a full-time presence senior U.S. editors and producers ered the and Persian Gulf to cover news from interested in being part of a 13-day wars and the collapse of the Soviet in words, pictures and video when Gatekeeper Editors Trip to Saudi Union, died January 13 in a car ac- on January 16 it formally opened Arabia. Applications are due March cident on Long Island. Threlkeld, its newest foreign bureau here. AP 15. The trip will focus on issues such 74, spent 33 years as a television President and CEO Tom Curley, an as energy, religion, environment, network correspondent, working two OPC member, and a delegation of education and women’s issues. stints at CBS — from 1965 to 1982, top AP editors attended the opening, and again from 1989 to 1998 — with which resulted from nearly a year of WEDDING the intervening seven years at ABC. negotiations. In 2006, the AP opened Pulitzer Prize winning photogra- He was co-anchor of “CBS Morning a video bureau in Pyongyang. pher Max Desfor married Shirley News” from 1977 to 1979. Belasco on January 28 at their con- On April 29, 1975, Threlkeld was NEW YORK: Reuters, which dominium in Silver Spring. Friends on one of the last helicopters to lift makes its money from electronic and relatives had gathered for Belas- off from the American embassy as information, is said to be considering co’s 90th birthday party. Desfor, 98, Saigon fell to the Communists and getting into the print business after stunned guests by announcing the he was in Beijing during the Tianan- producing a successful one-off surprise nuptial. “It was the best kept men Square demonstrations in 1989. magazine in January for the World secret,” he said. “Only a few people He reported from Moscow as the So- Economic Forum annual meeting in knew of the ceremony beforehand.” viet Union crumbled in the 1990s, Davos. “I would be very surprised if Belasco was an office manager leading to a 2001 book, Dispatches there wasn’t a print product in our and accountant before she retired. future,” said Jim Impoco, Executive Desfor was a photojournalist for The From the Former Evil Empire. Editor of Thomson Reuters Digital. Associated Press for 45 years and lat- (Continued on Page 14)

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 13 (Continued From Page 13) People Remembered: George Esper He won six OPC Awards. He is by Richard Pyle survived by his wife of 28 years, George Esper, an As- Betsy Aaron, a former CBS, ABC, sociated Press reporter NBC and CNN correspondent. who covered the for a decade and was u among the few western journalists who refused to join the U.S.-run evacua- Homai Vyarawalla, a photojour- tion of foreigners as Sai- nalist celebrated in India and pub- gon fell to communist forc- lished around the world, died Janu- es in 1975, died at age 79 ary 15 in Vadodara, in west India. in his sleep on February 2 George Esper outside the AP’s bureau She was 98. Vyarawalla was hailed at his home in Braintree, that he opened in 1993. Esper was the AP’s Massachusetts. last bureau chief in Saigon from 1973 to 1975 as the first Indian woman to work and he re-established AP’s presence in as a photojournalist and was famous During the Vietnam War, Esper became a Vietnam with the Hanoi bureau. for chronicling the country’s march legend among media col- toward independence and capturing leagues and military of- enduring images of Mohandas K. ficials for his reporting Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and world skills and relentless style leaders visiting India. She worked that led to a steady string for the Far Eastern bureau of the of often-stunning news British Information Services in New beats. The last of these Delhi, and did freelance work for was his scoop — if only by minutes — on the sur- Time, Life and The Illustrated Weekly render of South Vietnam of India, among other publications. on April 30, 1975, end- ing the 15-year conflict. u It earned him the rarity of a wire service byline on Arthur R. Kavaler, who served page 1 of The New York for 46 years as reporter, editor and Times. After retiring from eventually publisher of one of the AP special correspondent George Esper a 42-year AP career in publications that became ICIS poses with a Vietnamese boy in Quang Ngai 2000, Esper spent anoth- Province, south of Da Nang, 1966. Photos: AP Chemical Business, died January 19. er ten years as a profes- He was 91. Kavaler was an outspo- sor of journalism at West ken editor with strong convictions, Virginia University, his alma mater, where he earned new accolades for who made a large impact on chemi- inspiring his students — many of whom were, like Esper himself, the first cal industry journalism. He was ac- in their families to attend college. He retired from teaching in 2010 due to tive with The Chemists Club, the health issues, including heart disease. Esper wrote his most memorable story as Saigon fell to the North Viet- OPC, and the Na- namese. He and two other AP reporters, and Matt Franjo- tional Press Club. la, decided not to join the evacuation of foreigners as - After retiring in ese forces menaced the South Vietnamese capital. Two Hanoi soldiers the late 1990s, he entered the bureau, with a longtime freelance photographer for the AP took courses at who revealed that he had been a communist spy, and assured reporters Columbia Univer- they were safe. Esper offered them Coca-Cola and stale cake, then inter- sity and traveled viewed the soldiers who showed snapshots of their families back home. extensively with Esper said afterward he was struck by how similar young North Vietnam- ese soldiers were to the American GIs he had covered. his wife Lucy, While he considered his coverage of the dramatic end of the 15-year science writer, novelist and human Indochina conflict the high point in a 42-year career of deadline report- rights activist. At the time of her ing, it was far from the only one for a reporter famed for his dogged style death in 2010, they had been mar- in war and in peace. Other major stories he covered were the Jonestown ried 62 years. He was a graduate of massacre in Guyana in 1978, the 1991 and Bosnia in the late and in 1946 1990s. earned a Master’s degree at the Co- On his reporting style, Esper said in an interview in 2000, “You don’t want to be obnoxious and you don’t want to stalk people, but I think per- lumbia University Graduate School sistence pays off.” of Journalism.

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 14 Journalism Loses One of Its Finest, Anthony Shadid by John Daniszewski Soon after I heard the heart-wrenching news that An- thony Shadid had died in Syria, I had occasion to look back at the stories he wrote more than a decade and a half ago when he first came to the Middle East to work for The Associated Press. Those pieces still impressed. We were both based in Cairo then, and I remember how there was something special in his copy, a penetra- tion into the mind of the Arab street that eluded so many correspondents. He had an especially graceful way of capturing the feel and spirit of the place through intel- ligent use of detail and quotes. Not yet 30, equipped with Nada Bakri, Shadid’s wife, lit candles for her husband. some conversational Arabic he’d gotten growing up in OPC member his Lebanese-American family in Oklahoma, he was Anthony Shadid, a gifted foreign cor- even then on a quest to understand the region as deeply respondent who wrote for The as an outsider could and, eventually, to share what he New York Times, the Washing- learned with the rest of us. ton Post, the Boston Globe and Those early stories foreshadowed the great journal- The Associated Press for near- ist he was to become. He did not romanticize and yet ly two decades in the Middle almost everything he wrote conveyed a sense of history East died at 43 of an asthma and sympathy for the people of that region fraught with attack on February 16 while on assignment in Syria for The New York Times. , a Times photographer, so many problems and conflicts. He was prescient in his carried Shadid’s body to Turkey. choice of topics, writing long before 9/11 about the plot- From the moment the news of his death hit the wires, ting of Islamic militant cells in Europe, or the buzz sur- it left those in the journalism community stunned. Many rounding the son of a wealthy Saudi contractor then liv- have picked up their pens to write remembrances of him, ing in Sudan, someone called . some of the very best can be found at The New York I left Cairo in 2000 and he left the AP around then to Times online and Dexter Filkin’s essay on The New York- go to the Boston Globe. In early 2003, we met again in er’s website. on the eve of war. There was tremendous pres- Shadid won the 2003 OPC Hal Boyle Award for report- ing titled “The Soul of Iraq: From War to Resistance and sure on correspondents to leave the city before the immi- Rebirth” in . He also had book nights nent U.S. assault. Scores of journalists there were fight- at the OPC, most recently on November 15, 2005 for Night ing their own frenzied battles on two fronts: opposing Draws Near. He signed his book to the OPC: “To the OPC the Iraqis’ desire to evict them and editors’ demands that – Helping make journalism what it should be. All the best. they leave for their safety. I remember one anguished Anthony Shadid.” Shadid just became an OPC member in evening with Anthony in the Information Ministry, soon June 2011. to be set alight during the “shock and awe” bombard- pad, saying “huh,” after a particularly interesting remark, ment. His editors wanted him to leave, he said, but he asking more questions and sipping more tea. And at the would not, could not, miss such an important story, even end of the day, in a candlelit room back at our electricity- if it meant losing his job. Eventually he prevailed and the challenged hotel, he would hunch over his laptop and window to leave the country closed anyway. write. When things grew tough or he had a problem to In the next few weeks, we who stayed tried to chron- ponder, he would call his father back home in Oklahoma icle the experience of ordinary Iraqis. No one captured for advice and comfort. the drama and surrealism of the ousting of Saddam Hus- After that year, his acclaim grew, both among his col- sein quite as skillfully as Anthony. He would manage leagues and the public. But it never seemed to change to sneak off with his driver and sit in curtained living him. He was formidable as a reporter, formidable as a rooms, listening to Iraqis speaking hopefully of the free writer, and formidable in his courage and knowledge. days that would follow Hussein’s fall, or else, hear their But he was unfailingly humble to those around him. His anxiety about the chaos that would surely ensue. For his focus and curiosity was mostly on the Iraqis and their so- work that year, he won his first of two Pulitzer Prizes. ciety, not on the Americans who had come to occupy it. Across the region, people liked to talk to him. His When the easy victory proved not to be so, and the coun- name means “martyr” in Arabic and that often gave try shattered along ethnic and sectarian lines, he covered him an opening. Iraqis were fascinated by the chance to that too. speak directly to an American in their own tongue. He John Daniszewski is Vice President and Senior Man- was unfailingly patient and polite, taking notes on his aging Editor, International News and Photos at The AP.

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 15 ASIA New Books HINA’S SOARING ECONOMIC GLOBAL C growth is fueled by annual in- URNET HERSHEY, A PAST fluxes of up to 200 million poorly B president and a founder of the educated peasants migrating to Chi- OPC, is remembered fondly in Mem- na’s urban centers. There, they chiku oirs of a Geriatric Ski Bum, [Xlibris, or “eat bitterness” by enduring hard- October 2011] recently published by ships and working in difficult, low- his nephew, Stanley Hirsch. It was paying jobs that nevertheless offer a 1972 trip to Switzerland to track better options than rural farming. down a codicil to Hershey’s will that In Eating Bitterness: Stories from began Hirsh’s skiing adventures. the Front Lines of China’s Great Ur- Remembering his uncle in his book, ban Migration, [University of Cali- Hirsch wrote: fornia Press, March 2012] Michelle “It seems only fitting to end these Dammon Loyalka profiles eight memoirs with a few words about people who family and the person through whom Burnet Hershey in Paris. moved from my life of skiing began, my Uncle Eagle, the New York Herald Tribune the country- Jack (known in his professional life and The New York Times. side into cit- as Burnet Hershey). “Jack was the youngest journalist ies with the “In his early adulthood, Jack to attend the Versailles Peace Con- determina- Hirsch was a promising young vio- ference following the First World tion to save linist. He looked forward to continu- War. After each session, he gathered their wages ing in the musical tradition of my the papers left on the conference and capture a grandmother’s family.... table and compiled a 20-volume his- piece of the newly import- “Unfortunately, a finger on Jack tory of the event. He donated the ed American Hirsch’s left hand, the fingering only copy to Princeton, in honor of Dream. Loyalka, who won the 2006 hand, became paralyzed, thereby his friend, Albert Einstein. Irene Corbally Kuhn Scholarship ending his promising concert ca- “As president of the Overseas from the OPC Foundation for an es- reer. He moved on to another great Press Club, he was called upon many say that ultimately grew into “Eating interest, journalism, and through times to deliver a eulogy for a de- Bitterness,” writes about the difficul- the years worked for The Brooklyn parted member. He often started with ties the migrants face and the varied these words: “Death is more univer- directions this journey takes them. sal than life. Everyone dies, but not The profiles tell the stories of in- everyone lives. Not everyone experi- dividual pain, self-sacrifice, and un- ences and writes about the world as certainty as it underlies China’s dra- has this prominent member or our matic national transformation. Coming up... press corps.” — by Susan Kille Book Night: Overseas Press Club of America Hitlerland 40 West 45 Street March 19 New York, NY 10036 USA See page 1 for details

Save the Date: OPC Awards Dinner April 25, 6 p.m. Bulletin Details in the April Call the OPC for ticket and table info: 212-626-9220

OPC Bulletin • March 2012 • Page 16