Fifth Annual Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism go to Steven Vincent and Massoud Ansari

Awards Honour US Freelancer Murdered in Iraq for Uncovering Police Death Squads and Karachi Reporter for Documenting Islamic Militancy

Steven Vincent, who paid with his life while chronicling the conflict in Iraq and the rise of the insurgency, has won the 2006 Kurt Schork Awards for International Journalism in the freelance category. Witnessing 9/11 at first hand turned Vincent from an art journalist into a war reporter; Drawn to the conflict in Iraq, he quickly built up a reputation as a dogged and fearless observer of the rise in sectarian violence.

In August 2005, The New York Times published his expose about lawlessness in British-controlled Basra, typified by a hit squad of Iraqi police who toured Basra in a ‘white death car.’ Just two days later that car returned for him. Vincent, whose body was recovered a short time later, was awarded this year’s freelance prize for ‘reporting upon the most sensitive story possible,’ according to judges, Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, Isabel Hilton of OpenDemocracy.net, Saira Shah, the author and broadcaster and author Peter Maass

The judges also highly commended Isabel Coello in the freelance category for her reporting on the many victims of obstetric fistula, ‘taking an ignored subject and pursuing it across Africa’.

The winner of the local category is Massoud Ansari, an investigative journalist with Pakistan’s Newsline magazine who wins the award in recognition of his ‘ability to weave together a very complex political story.’ As well as exposing a chain of command linking Pakistan extremists to the 7/7 bombers in London and reporting the political battle over the activities of his country’s madrassahs, Ansari uncovered evidence which appears to question Islamabad’s case against the man charged with Daniel Pearl’s murder.

‘I’m delighted to have won,’ Ansari told the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund. ‘I still have a great deal to learn and there is still a long way to go, but this award is a beacon of light and helps us all strive to set the highest standards of journalism.’

Ansari will join Steven Vincent’s widow Lisa Ramaci at the Frontline Club in London on November 16th to receive the awards and a prize of $5,000 each at an evening dedicated to celebrating the unsung heroes of global reporting. The event will be hosted by Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent and member of the Kurt Schork Memorial Advisory Board. The Kurt Schork Awards were set up in 2001 to celebrate the life of the former freelance journalist killed in Sierra Leone six years ago while on assignment for Reuters. More than 80 journalists from dozens of countries around the world entered this year’s competition in a continuing testimony to the growing strength of local and freelance journalism.