The Maria Moors Cabot Prize
The Journalism School announced the 2009 winners of the Cabot Prize on July 27.
Lea sobre los ganadores en español.
Now in its 71st year ― the oldest international award in journalism ― the Maria Moors Cabot Prize honors journalists who have covered the Western Hemisphere and, through their reporting and editorial work, have furthered inter-American understanding.
Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger will present the Cabot Prize gold medals and honoraria at a dinner and ceremony on Wednesday, October 14, on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus.
The 2009 gold medalists are:
Anthony DePalma
For more than two decades, readers of The New York Times have been privileged to look at the Americas through the many different lenses in the journalism toolkit of Anthony DePalma. A long-time foreign correspondent and author of compelling books, DePalma has focused on society, culture, politics, business and environment from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. He was based both in Mexico and then Canada as the paper’s bureau chief. He traveled the Americas as a business correspondent. He has reported from Cuba. Armed with curiosity, a deep intellect, a sense of humanity and an engaging writing style, he has produced books looking at the complex love-hate relationship between Cuba and the U.S. and showing how the weight of history and the push of increasing globalization have changed relations among Mexico, Canada and the U.S. DePalma stepped down from the Times last year, but continues to write and teach about Latin America. He has devoted a lifetime of journalism to promoting inter-American understanding. In fact, he embodies the very essence of the Cabot Prize and for that we honor him.
Christopher M. Hawley
Latin America correspondent for USA Today and The Arizona Republic
Clearly in love with covering the Americas, Chris Hawley has managed to survive as one of a dwindling number of U.S. journalists still plying that beat. He does it in the best tradition of good narrative feature writing, which is particularly endangered by the current economic climate. For more than a decade, Hawley has consistently brought off-beat, well-written stories about Latin America and the Caribbean to U.S. readers. Even when he tackles familiar subjects, he still manages to find an original perspective, especially when covering Mexican migration. Hawley challenges himself by looking for deeper themes, while treating his subjects with dignity and sensitivity. He writes with empathy and skill. Based in Mexico, Hawley works for two Gannett papers, The Arizona Republic and USA Today. He started out as a cub reporter in Puerto Rico and was an editor on AP’s international desk. Hawley gives his readers a better understanding of the region he covers, making him a worthy winner this year of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize.
Merval Pereira
Columnist for O Globo
For more than four decades Merval Pereira has excelled as an investigative reporter, regional bureau chief, editor, managing editor, columnist, foreign correspondent and radio and television commentator. A member of a generation of Brazilian journalists who started their careers in the adversity of a military dictatorship, he bravely resisted censorship as a young journalist. His stories on divisions among the ruling generals accelerated the country’s return to democracy. Always a guardian of journalistic ethics and values, he successfully fought off the current democratic administration’s attempt to set up a National Council of Journalism to “guide and discipline” the profession. As executive editor of O Globo, he successfully modernized the influential daily and raised its journalism standards. As a columnist, he has written balanced, well-informed, well-researched and elegant analyses of the difficult domestic and international political and economic challenges confronting Brazil. Never far from his roots as a reporter, he distinguished himself as recently as last year as a New York-based newspaper and television correspondent covering last year’s U.S. presidential campaign. By high-lighting similarities and contrasts between the continent’s two most populous democracies, this recent work has significantly contributed to inter-American understanding.
Yoani Sánchez
Blogger, Generación Y
Yoani Sánchez is an ordinary Cuban citizen using the internet with extraordinary power. In barely two years, her weekly blog, Generación Y, has put the rest of the world in touch with Cuba — at least digitally. Generación Y does not repeat the battle of words which Cuba and the U.S. have hurled back and forth for five decades. Instead, it is a pitch-perfect mix of personal observation and tough analysis which conveys better than anybody else what daily life ― with all its frustrations and hopes ― is like for Cubans living their lives on the island today. Sánchez, a 34-year-old philologist, pursues her craft with ingenuity, scarce resources and an enormous amount of guts ― buying a few minutes here and there on one of the few internet-connected computers available to Cubans in Havana, quickly downloading and emailing her written and video comments to devoted supporters who post the blog in 15 languages. She has a loyal following of thousands around the world. For her courage, talent and great achievement in such a brief period of time, the Maria Moors Cabot board is proud to award Yoani Sánchez a special citation for journalistic excellence.
About the Maria Moors Cabot Prize
Founded in 1938 by the late Godfrey Lowell Cabot of Boston as a memorial to his wife, the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes are administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.The prizes, the oldest international prizes in journalism, are awarded by the trustees of the University on the recommendation of the dean of the Journalism School. A Cabot Prize Board of journalists and educators concerned with hemisphere affairs assists the dean in selecting the winners. Nominations are sought from news organizations and individuals throughout Latin and North America. The Cabot Prizes are presented each year by the president of the University in formal ceremonies in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library on the University’s main campus in New York City. With this year’s awards, 257 Cabot Prizes and 56 special citations have been awarded to journalists from more than 30 countries in the Americas.
The Cabot Prizes are awarded each fall to three or four journalists in the Western Hemisphere who, through their sustained and distinguished body of work, have contributed to Inter-American understanding. Occasionally the award is given to an organization that has made a similar contribution.
We invite you to submit nominations for the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes.
Contact Information |
Program Manager
Maria Moors Cabot Prize
Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University
2950 Broadway MC 3800
New York, NY 10027-7004
Ph: 212-854-6468
Fax: 212-851-7701
cabotprizes@columbia.edu
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