Al Jazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz, NF '09, who had been detajned in Syria and Iran for almost three weeks was released on May 18 and is now safe at home in Qatar. She has been in touch with her Nieman colleagues to say she is well and to thank all who worked for her release. Read more
Ann Marie Lipinski, the Nieman Foundation's incoming curator, is among three Pulitzer Prize Board members newly elected as co-chairs. Lipinski, former editor of the Chicago Tribune and 1990 Nieman Fellow, has served on the board since 2003. Read more
James H. McCartney, an award-winning Washington correspondent and columnist who specialized in foreign affairs and defense policy for the Knight Ridder newspaper chain, died Friday, May 6, at the age of 85. In 33 years as a Washington journalist, McCartney wrote extensively about nuclear weapons policy, the Israeli-Arab conflict and the Vietnam War, among other issues. He was a 1964 Nieman Fellow. Read more
Journalist Dorothy Parvaz, NF ’09, who has been missing since the end of April, is reportedly now in Iranian custody. Parvaz was detained by Syrian officials in Damascus on April 29 while on assignment for her employer, Al Jazeera. She has not been heard from since. Syria issued a statement saying Parvaz was deported to Iran on May 1, but Iranian officials have not yet confirmed that report. Parvaz is a citizen of Iran, Canada and the United States. Read more
Journalist Dorothy Parvaz, a 2009 Nieman Fellow who works for Al Jazeera, has been detained in Syria. No one has heard from her since she landed in Damascus on a flight from Doha, Qatar, on Friday, April 29, but Syrian officials have informed Al Jazeera that they are holding her. Read more
Alma Guillermoprieto, a 2005 Nieman Fellow, and Shaul Schwartz were among the recipients of the 72nd Overseas Press Club Awards. The pair earned the Ed Cunningham Award for Print Journalism for their National Geographic piece “Troubled Spirits.” Read more
Joe Latakgomo, one of South Africa’s most respected journalists, has been appointed the new Public Editor for Avusa Media, acting as the readers’ representative for the group’s newspaper titles. Read more
Joe Thloloe, NF '89 and chair of this year's South Africa Nieman selection committee, has received an honorary doctorate in law from Rhodes University. He was recognized as "a long-standing anti-apartheid activist who endured much for his involvement in the cause and a public intellectual for whom ethical concerns are uppermost." Thloloe currently serves as the South African press ombudsman. Read more
Only one of seven crew members survived the sudden sinking of the Lady Mary, a scallop boat, in March 2009. Reporter Amy Ellis Nutt, NF ’05, spent seven months unraveling clues, and in November 2010, her five-part series, “The Wreck of the Lady Mary,” appeared on the front page of the Star-Ledger and on its website, where it featured photographs and video by her colleague Andre Malok. Nutt was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Read more
Brent Walth, an award-winning investigative reporter for The Oregonian, has been hired to be managing news editor for Willamette (Portland, Ore.) Week. Walth is a 2006 Nieman Fellow. Read more
