Colby College to Recognize Alfredo Corchado From the Dallas Morning News for Coverage of Mexican Drug Wars With 2010 Lovejoy Award

WATERVILLE, Maine, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Colby College has announced that Alfredo Corchado, Mexico Bureau Chief for the Dallas Morning News, will receive the 2010 Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award for courageous journalism. The convocation is scheduled for Sunday, September 26, 2010, at 5 p.m. in Lorimer Chapel on the Colby College campus.

"The Lovejoy Award at Colby has a long history of recognizing courageous journalists, and Alfredo Corchado could not be more deserving of this year's award," said L. Sandy Maisel, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government and director of the Goldfarb Center at Colby. "Even in the face of death threats, Alfredo has bravely continued reporting on the activities of Mexican drug cartels to provide a firsthand account of what's happening along the U.S.– Mexico border."

Corchado is regarded as the most intrepid reporter on the Mexican drug war beat, according to members of the Lovejoy Selection Committee. He has endured death threats while breaking news about drug dealers and organized crime, disappearances and deaths of women in Juarez, police and government corruption, and the spillover of violence across the border into Dallas and other Texas cities. He has written about the war against journalists waged by the drug traffickers and corrupt officials, and he has described perils that journalists face and the disturbing result: a Mexican press going silent. He has also covered immigration and Mexican politics.

"It's never been more dangerous to practice journalism in Mexico," Corchado said. "Journalists have been kidnapped, co-opted, disappeared and killed. It's not just the lives of journalists at stake here, but freedom of expression, a key pillar for any functioning democracy." Corchado said he would accept the Lovejoy award "in the memory of many courageous Mexican colleagues, and dedicate it to those who continue to risk their lives to document one of the most important stories of our time."

Corchado will give a convocation address to the Colby students, faculty and members of the community at 5 p.m. on Sunday, September 26, 2010. Audio of Corchado's speech is available as a podcast from the Goldfarb Center at Colby and will be available on the Goldfarb Center website (www.colby.edu/goldfarb) following the convocation.

Corchado will remain on campus for several days after the convocation and will be joined by KHOU-TV Mexico Bureau Chief Angela Kocherga and Rosental Alves, Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas, in a panel discussion on Monday, September 27 at noon regarding how journalists view United States-Mexico relations. The panel will focus on both the substance of the issues discussed in their reporting—immigration, controlling drugs, trade, and others—and the unique difficulties journalists face in covering these issues in this region.

The Lovejoy Award was established in 1952 in the memory of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Colby's valedictorian in 1826 and a passionate abolitionist publisher who was killed in Alton, Ill., in 1837 for condemning slavery. He is considered America's first martyr to freedom of the press. Previous Lovejoy Award recipients include: Paul Salopek (2009), who was imprisoned while reporting from Darfur; Anne Hull of The Washington Post (2008), who exposed the healthcare scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Jerry Mitchell (2006), whose reporting brought Ku Klux Klansmen to justice for civil rights murders; Daniel Pearl (2002, posthumous); David Halberstam (1997); and Katherine Graham (1973), publisher of the Washington Post during Watergate.

Corchado was chosen to receive the 2010 Lovejoy Award by a selection committee that includes Ann Marie Lipinski, former editor of the Chicago Tribune; Rebecca Corbett, deputy Washington bureau chief for the New York Times; Gregory Moore, editor of the Denver Post; Mike Pride, editor emeritus and columnist for the Concord Monitor; David Shribman, vice president and executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; and Professor L. Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement.

To learn more about the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement and the Lovejoy Award, please visit www.colby.edu/goldfarb .

SOURCE Colby College