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08/28/07
AP names 9 winners of Gramling Awards for excellence, including
3 Mideast journalists
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Associated Press has named nine members
of its worldwide staff, including three in the Middle East,
as winners of its 2007 Gramling Awards for excellence.
The awards selection committee's recognition of the AP presence
in hostile environments was particularly apt this year because
of the dangers reporters have faced in trying to cover conflicts
in the Middle East, AP President and CEO Tom Curley said Tuesday.
"This year's winners distinguished themselves as role
models. Their achievements are the result of exceptional focus
despite sometimes life-threatening obstacles," Curley
said.
The honorees also include a bureau supervisor regarded as
a role model for AP editors on deadline, a multimedia investigative
journalist with a knack for breaking stories, a London-based
technologist who helped establish a new Arabic language wire
and the Web manager for the AP Television News client site.
The awards, now in their 14th year, are given annually to
staff members whose work and initiative contribute significantly
to the news report and to overall AP operations.
The awards are named after Oliver S. Gramling, the AP newsman
and executive who in 1941 developed AP's first radio wire.
Gramling bequeathed his estate to the AP when he died in 1992,
directing that it be used for AP staff members nominated for
excellence by their colleagues.
A committee of AP bureau and department managers selected
the winners.
The committee also paid special tribute to the team of researchers,
writers, editors and others who contributed to the success
of AP's first history book in six decades, "BREAKING
NEWS: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and
Everything Else" (Princeton Architectural Press, June
2007).
This year's winners:
-- Gramling Journalism Awards ($10,000 each): John Antczak
and Sharon Theimer. The Committee said Antczak, a supervisor
in the Los Angeles bureau, is a model for the skills an AP
editor should possess as the guiding hand behind the best
possible journalism while upholding the news ethics and standards
that define the AP, all while on deadline. Theimer, of the
Washington-based Multimedia Investigative Team, was cited
for groundbreaking work in producing content across all AP
formats.
-- Gramling Achievement Awards ($10,000 each): Arif Ali and
Tracey Rogers. Ali, London-based regional product director
for Europe, Middle East and Africa, was cited for overseeing
the technical creation and implementation of a host of international
services, including AP Headline and most recently an Arabic
language wire. Rogers, Web manager for AP Television News,
was honored for using innovation and technology to turn the
aptn.com Web site into a comprehensive, user-friendly communications
tool in the video news business.
-- Gramling Spirit Awards ($3,000 each): Qassim Abdul-Zahra,
Baghdad-based reporter; Ibrahim Barzak, AP's correspondent
in the Gaza Strip; Bassam Hatoum, Beirut-based senior producer
for AP Television News, and New York-based science writer
Malcolm Ritter. Abdul-Zahra was cited for breaking stories
and covering the Iraqi government at great personal risk to
himself and his loved ones; Barzak for straightforward, unbiased
journalism in a highly politicized news atmosphere, often
while under fire; and Hatoum for inspiring a team of staffers
and stringers across all AP formats in Lebanon and never failing
to win on a story. Ritter was honored for being the ultimate
team player who freely gives his time to assist any AP journalist
requesting help and for creating the AP Science Wiki page,
a resource used by writers around the world.
-- Gramling Scholarship Award ($3,000): Peter Prengaman, Los
Angeles-based immigration/diversity reporter, whose plan for
advanced Arabic studies at UCLA is aimed at strengthening
his current beat and bringing him closer to his goal of being
an AP news manager in the Middle East or North Africa.
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On the Net:
http://www.ap.org
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