International Center for Journalists Awards Dinner 2013

Each year, the International Center for Journalists Awards Dinner honors the achievements of colleagues whose outstanding news reports or media innovations have made a huge impact. For one inspiring evening in Washington, U.S. headliners join overseas journalists to showcase the power of quality information.

Chief foreign correspondent of NBC News Richard Engel will receive ICFJ’s Excellence in International Reporting Award for his intrepid coverage of the Middle East.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer will return to host the dinner and Nick Kristof will deliver the keynote speech. ICFJ will also honor international journalists Roman Anin of Russia and Umar Cheema of Pakistan for their outstanding investigative reporting.

Though four of Anin’s colleagues at Novaya Gazeta were murdered since 2000, he continued to document the culture of corruption among Russian companies and officials, exposing nearly $1 billion of misappropriated funds.

Cheema was kidnapped and brutally tortured in 2010 for his critical reports of the government, but he too persisted as a watchdog. He analyzed the tax records of lawmakers and ministers in Pakistan and discovered nearly 70 percent of legislators weren’t filing income taxes. His expose prompted the government to institute new legislation.

This year’s photo auction will feature photographs donated by Peter Turnley, who has photographed many of the world’s conflicts of the last decade, including the Iraq War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and more. His photographs have been featured in leading news publications like Newsweek, LIFE and National Geographic.