PBS's Gwen Ifill to Receive Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Gwen Ifill will receive the 2013 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism on June 23 at the Newseum's Knight Conference Center. The longtime print and television journalist is co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour and moderator of "Washington Week."

The award will be presented at 11:30 a.m., during the 2014 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference, which brings 51 outstanding high school students to Washington each year for discussions with leading government, legal and journalism figures. The original 2013 award presentation, planned for fall 2013, was postponed following Neuharth's death earlier in the year.

"Gwen Ifill represents the best in journalism today, working across multiple news outlets, providing credible news, insight and explanation of complex issues to her viewers and readers," said Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute, which presents the award. "She's also an inspiration to the next generation of journalists in a profession challenged to respond to the news needs of an increasingly diverse and mobile audience."

Ifill also is the best-selling author of "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama." As a journalist, she has interviewed national and international newsmakers and reported on issues from foreign affairs to U.S. politics. She covered seven presidential campaigns and moderated the vice presidential debates in 2004 and 2008.

Before coming to PBS in 1999, Ifill was chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, White House correspondent for The New York Times, and a local and national political reporter for The Washington Post. She also reported for The Evening Sun in Baltimore and the Boston Herald American.

Ifill joins her PBS co-anchor Judy Woodruff as a recipient of the Neuharth Award. Woodruff, and her husband, journalist Al Hunt, were co-recipients in 1995.

Other past recipients of the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism are: Walter Cronkite (1989), Carl T. Rowan (1990), Helen Thomas (1991), Tom Brokaw (1992), Larry King (1993), Charles Kuralt (1994), Robert MacNeil (1996), Cokie Roberts (1997), Tim Russert and Louis D. Boccardi (1998), John Seigenthaler (1999), Jim Lehrer (2001), Tom Curley (2002), Don Hewitt (2004), Garrison Keillor (2005), Bob Schieffer (2006), John Quinn and Ken Paulson (2007), Charles Overby (2008), Katie Couric (2009), Cathie Black and Frank Vega (2010), Brian Lamb (2011) and Marilyn Hagerty (2012).

The recipient of the 2014 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism will be announced later this year, and the presentation event will take place Oct. 9 at the University of South Dakota, Neuharth's alma mater, in Vermillion, S.D.

About the Newseum Institute and the Newseum
The Newseum Institute provides a forum for educational programs and thought-leadership initiatives, as well as educational materials addressing the five freedoms of the First Amendment: speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition.

One of the top attractions in Washington, D.C., the Newseum's 250,000-square-foot news museum offers visitors a state-of-the-art experience that blends news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits. The Newseum Institute serves as a forum for First Amendment study, exploration and education. The Newseum is a 501(c)(3) public charity funded by generous individuals, corporations and foundations, including the Freedom Forum.

About the Al Neuharth Media Center
The Al Neuharth Media Center on the University of South Dakota campus was dedicated in 2003 and is home to South Dakota Public Broadcasting, the USD Department of Contemporary Media and Journalism, and all USD student media, including the student-edited newspaper The Volante and its online news site.

About the University of South Dakota
Named "one of America's best colleges" by The Princeton Review, the University of South Dakota is designated as the only public liberal arts university in the state and is home to a comprehensive College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, the state's only School of Law, School of Medicine, the accredited Beacom School of Business and the College of Fine Arts.

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SOURCE Newseum Institute