Public Radio International’s The World, a Carnegie Corporation grantee, was honored with the Overseas Press Club’s Lowell Thomas award for international radio reporting. The winning reports were produced for SafeMode, a PRI project that targets “a new generation’s take on security,” from electronic privacy to climate policy, terrorism to twitter diplomacy.
This SafeMode series focused on the repercussions of the Arab Spring. Both reporter Marine Olivesi and editor Aaron Schachter were recognized for 2014 field reports in Syria and Libya. Here is how the OPC described the reports:
“In a series of stories for PRI, Marine Olivesi describes the ordinary people whose lives have been torn apart by extremism around the Middle East, from a young Libyan freedom fighter desperately searching for a brother who has joined jihadis in Syria to the fellow who regrets bringing Chechen fighters into Syria. Olivesi is a brave, enterprising, creative young reporter who took on an extremely ambitious assignment that goes way beyond the headlines to examine the origins and outcomes of extremism.”
Listen to the winning stories:
The Death of a Teen Activist Marks a New Low in Benghazi's Violence
Getting This Man's Brother Back Alive From Syria Would Be 'Nothing Short of a Miracle'
Why This Syrian Man Regrets Bringing Al-Qaeda Fighters Into His Country
This Is Breakdancing 101, Tunisia Style
The Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York by a group of foreign correspondents. Today, the OPC seeks to maintain an international association of journalists; to encourage the highest standards of professional integrity and skill in the reporting of news; to help educate a new generation of journalists; to contribute to the freedom and independence of journalists and the press throughout the world; and to work toward better communication and understanding among people.
