Columbia University Announces 14 duPont Broadcast News Award Winners

Columbia University Announces 14 duPont Broadcast News Award Winners

Bold Reporting of 'Facts on the Ground' Emphasizes Critical Role of News Media as Witness to the Truth

Christiane Amanpour Hosts PBS Documentary Telling the Truth: The Best in Broadcast Journalism Featuring Interviews with Winners and Excerpts of the Year's Finest Broadcast Journalism

NEW YORK, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Columbia University today announced 14 winners of the 2007 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for broadcast journalism. The award-winning news reports are featured in the annual PBS documentary Telling the Truth: The Best in Broadcast Journalism with Christiane Amanpour. PBS feed on January 18. Check local listings.

The winners were chosen from 526 radio and television news entries that aired in the United States between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006. Public broadcasting, both television and radio, dominated the awards, garnering seven of the fourteen batons. Winners included programs of the PBS series FRONTLINE, AMERICAN MASTERS, and INDEPENDENT LENS as well as an independent production that premiered on PBS. A collaboration of four California public television stations won another award. NPR's foreign desk and a series by WGBH public radio serving Cape Cod and The Islands were the only two winners among radio reports. NBC News was the only network news operation to win a duPont Award, an unusual outcome this year. Other national winners were HBO and the Discovery Times Channel. Local affiliates of NBC and ABC were honored along with two CBS local stations. The silver batons will be presented on January 17th at Columbia University.

Telling the Truth: The Best in Broadcast Journalism includes dramatic excerpts from these award-winning reports and insightful interviews with many of this year's duPont winners. A former duPont winner, CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour hosts this year's program, which examines the challenges, decisions and issues involved in the pursuit of great journalism. The documentary is written and produced by Martin Smith, a former duPont winner well known for public television documentaries on FRONTLINE. "Several winners spoke eloquently about the responsibility journalists have to speak the truth," said Smith. "Hurricane Katrina tested the willingness of the major media to take a more aggressive and critical approach to those in positions of power. This was evident in Iraq and other areas as well."

DETAILED RELEASE AVAILABLE AT www.dupont.org/press.

Press Contact:
Colby Kelly
914-960-4555

Source: Columbia University

CONTACT: Colby Kelly for Columbia University, +1-914-960-4555

Web site: http://www.dupont.org/press

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