NABJ : 2004 News Releases : Young Achievers Highlight 2004 Special Honors

NABJ's Board of Directors chose Hannah Allam, Knight Ridders new Baghdad bureau chief, as Journalist of the Year; Theola Labb, a suburban reporter who spent three months in Iraq for The Washington Post, as Emerging Journalist of the Year; and Talia Buford, editor of the Hampton Script at Hampton University, as the associations first Student Journalist of the Year, Lowe said.

What these young women accomplished in the past year should remind us all why we became journalists, he said. Hannah and Theola helped open our eyes to what was otherwise untold in Iraq as they seized a prized chance to work on the years biggest story. And while not shrinking to intimidation from the university administration, Talia helped show that the First Amendment still must be vigorously protected here in America. As president, I couldn't be more proud of all three and know they will continue to make us proud.

Clarence Page, the syndicated newspaper columnist, is this years recipient of the NABJ lifetime achievement award, Lowe said. An author, television commentator and a member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board who won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1989, Page writes in his column about social, economic and political issues affecting Americans.

Noting that the lifetime achievement award is bestowed upon a black journalist for making an extraordinary contribution to the enrichment, understanding or advancement of black life and culture, NABJ Region III Director Elliott Lewis wrote in his nominating letter, I can think of no other journalist who fits that description better than Clarence Page.

The president also announced the winners in these other Special Honors categories:

Congratulations to all of these winners and finalists, said Lowe, a courts reporter at Newsday in New York. They are very much deserving of these special honors and NABJ's recognition.

NABJ is also bestowing two Thumbs Down awards this year to Jayson Blair, former reporter, The New York Times, and those pundits who sought to link his downfall to race and affirmative action; and to JoAnn Haysbert, Ph.D., the acting university president at Hampton who, by seizing an entire press run of The Script, created the controversy that pushed Buford into the spotlight.

The legacy, community service, student journalist of the year, Percy Qoboza, best practices and thumbs down awards will be presented on Thursday, August 5, 2004, during NABJ's annual convention banquet at the UNITY 2004: Journalists of Color Convention and Career Expo at the Washington Convention Center. The chapter- and student-chapter-of-the-year presentations will also occur at the banquet, as will this years NABJ Hall of Fame inductions, Lowe said.

The lifetime achievement, journalist of the year and emerging journalist awards will be presented on Saturday, October 9, 2004, at a special gala awards ceremony in Washington. The associations 2004 Salute to Excellence awards, which honor outstanding journalism about people or issues in the African diaspora, will also be bestowed at the ceremony.

The Board of Directors chose the Special Honors winners and finalists at its spring meeting in Washington. NABJ's Special Honors Committee solicited and reviewed nominations from the associations 3,600 members, its dozens of chapters and others. Except for the lifetime achievement and legacy categories, each entrant's contributions and deeds occurred in 2003.

Led by chairwoman Chanta Jackson, a section editor at The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., the committee includes Elise Durham, media relations manager, Morehouse College, Atlanta; Dana Littlefield, staff writer, The San Diego Union-Tribune; Toni Randolph, reporter, Minnesota Public Radio and Calvin Stovall, managing editor, The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.

The committee felt it was great to see all of the positive work that black journalists are doing in contrast to all the negatives cast upon the media in general, and us in particular, over the past year, Jackson said while referring to the ethical lapses by Blair and others. Our winners are at different levels of their careers and yet represent the best that journalism has to offer today and in the future.

Allam first joined the Knight Ridder Washington bureaus Iraq team last year on a three-month loan from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She so distinguished herself that Knight Ridder asked her to leave the newspaper and become its first bureau chief in Baghdad.

She covered a wide range of stories that gave readers a real view of life on the ground in the aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Linda Waller, deputy director of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, wrote in nominating Allam for journalist of the year. Her international perspective, fluency in French and Arabic, knowledge of Muslim culture and pure courage led her to report an important package of stories; one of the most controversial of her still brief career looked inside an Iraqi guerilla camp. Through it we saw the mindset of the people resisting U.S. occupation. She also showed us a window on the world of Iraqi youth.

The emerging journalist category is for those with less than five years in the industry, excluding internships. Now in her fourth year in daily journalism, Labb also went to Iraq for three months last year after quickly impressing editors at The Washington Post with her work as an education reporter in suburban Maryland, and her deep commitment and passion for journalism. (Labb now covers social services on the city desk at The Post.)

Kevin Merida, an associate editor at The Post and NABJ's 2000 Journalist of the Year, wrote in nominating Labb: At a time when we see so many young people souring on journalism careers it is refreshing to see Theola out there hustling, eager to get as good as she can get, wanting to bring back stories that others might not see. I am especially impressed that at a time when so much focus in our business is placed on database reporting, developing huge multi-part projects and brainstorming around office cubicles, Theolas interest is in ... getting outside the building and discovering life as it is lived.

While NABJ bestowed its first Special Honors award (lifetime achievement) in 1978, the Board of Directors in January voted to begin honoring a student journalist of the year. Buford, a junior print journalism major at Hampton, became an easy first choice for her actions last fall after The Scripts press run was seized because it did not put on its front page a memo by Haysbert about violations at a university dining hall, Lowe said. The staff later published the memo as directed in exchange for a new task force that produced recommendations to assure students at Hampton a free press.

As editor of the Hampton Script, Talia demonstrated exemplary leadership and courage as the staff battled the universitys administration for editorial control of the newspaper, according to a nominating letter from officials at the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton. Throughout the controversy, Talia remained steadfast in her efforts to provide the university community with a free student newspaper. She demonstrated intelligence, heart and tenacity in this public stand for journalistic integrity.

The legacy award is for a journalist who has broken barriers and blazed trails for others. A NABJ founding member and its second president (1977-1979), Jarretts legacy over six decades as, among other things, a columnist, reporter and television and radio talk show host is boundless.

He has proven to not only accurately and vividly report on issues that affect and impact the black community, but he is an unsung hero at the forefront of battles to ensure parity and justice, NABJ Region V Director Marsha Eaglin wrote in nominating Jarrett, who still writes a column several times a week for The Chicago Defender.

The Percy Qoboza honor is for a foreign journalist, not working for U.S.-based media, who has done extraordinary work while overcoming tremendous obstacles. Njawe, editor in chief of the independent newspaper, Le Messager, has been arrested dozens of times and exiled for publishing material the Cameroon government deemed inappropriate, according to published reports.

Pius Njawe is very deserving of an award for a foreign journalist who faces an entirely different experience with regard to doing his job as a journalist, NABJ Region VII Director Russell LaCour wrote in nominating him. Despite his many arrests, he still believed that the story must be told.

The community service award goes to a journalist who has had a positive impact on society outside the normal realm of journalism. As publisher of The Dallas Examiner, a 10,000-circulation weekly, Belt has committed her newspaper to help address the HIV/AIDS crisis in her area. For example, the paper sponsored a town hall meeting, with actor Danny Glover as special guest, that 2,500 people attended at least 200 of whom were tested on site for sexually transmitted diseases. Belt also has devoted time to build relationship with AIDS support groups, radio stations, community groups and a local church to promote the campaign.

Mrs. Belt has been more worried about the increasing number of people acquiring HIV and dying from AIDS than she has the bottom line, Sharon Egiebor, the papers executive editor, wrote in nominating the publisher.

The best practices award lauds a news company for exemplary work in covering issues impacting the black community or increasing newsroom diversity. With a small staff and limited budget, Our Texas, a quarterly lifestyle magazine, produced a remarkable series of timelines covering the growth and change across the state over the past 12 years, according to its publisher, Gemeral Berry Jr.

They gave context to newsmakers and events through an African American perspective, Berry wrote in nominating his publication for the honor. They attempted to counter mainstream media's weighty distortion with fuller imagery and refreshed language.

The Thumbs Down award goes to an individual or organization for especially insensitive, racist or stereotypical reporting, commentary, photography or a cartoon about the black community, or for engaging in practices at odds with NABJ's goals.

Blairs downfall and impact have been well chronicled. NABJ's Media Monitoring Committee also recommended, however, that he share his award with the pundits who focused on his skin color.

Jayson Blair had many faults, said Richard Prince, the committees chairman. But instead of addressing those such as the significance of drug abuse, career-ism and an ego gone wild many in the media chose to focus primarily on his race. That is unfair and needlessly cast a cloud over affirmative action efforts in newsrooms and the quality work of so many other black journalists.

The Special Honors Committee also urged to the Board of Directors to give Haysbert a Thumbs Down for what she wrought as acting president at Hampton.

Even though the university ultimately formed a task force and accepted recommendations to ensure what happened never happens again, the committee felt we could not overlook the attempt to disregard the basic freedoms afforded by the First Amendment, said Jackson, the chairwoman.

An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the nation, with more than 4,100 members, and provides educational, career development and support to black journalists worldwide.