GlobalPost announces GroundTruth fellowship for Middle East reporting

NEW YORK — Last year at this time, I was leading a moment of silence at the annual Overseas Press Club Foundation luncheon for what was the most deadly year on record for journalists since records have been being kept by the International Press Institute. We were remembering colleagues like the late New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, who died on assignment in Syria, and Marie Colvin, who wrote for the Sunday Times of London and was killed in a rocket attack on the compound where she was staying.

This year, at today's luncheon, we are proud to be using the ocassion to announce a $10,000 Middle East reporting fellowship for a top, young journalist who reports in the spirit of these great colleagues. We are calling it the "GroundTruth Fellowship," and the work by the selected reporting fellow will appear here in the GroundTruth blog and as a GlobalPost Special Report.

“GroundTruth,” as those of you who follow this blog know, is a belief that you need to be there on the ground to get the story. In an age in which too many journalists operate out of cubicles, we are committed to providing support for correspondents who live and breathe the story, who speak the language, and who know the people and understand the culture from where they are reporting.

During the last two years, the Overseas Press Club and the community of foreign correspondents have lost too many great journalists in the Middle East who have risked their lives pursuing the stories that matter. This fellowship is in their collective honor and, particularly, in the spirit of the late foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid, who had a long and distinguished reporting career in the Middle East for The A.P., The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and The New York Times. Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, died last year of an apparent asthma attack while on assignment in Syria for the Times.

Anthony was a great listener, and that is perhaps the single, most important quality of a great reporter.

Here is the press release we put together explaining the details of the fellowship:

NEW YORK, NY– February 22, 2013 – A $10,000 Middle East reporting fellowship was announced today by the world news website GlobalPost at the Overseas Press Club Foundation annual luncheon.

The “GroundTruth Fellowship” will be awarded to a correspondent working on the ground in the Middle East with a minimum of three years of experience.

In calling for applications for the fellowship, GlobalPost is looking for a talented, young writer who presents the most worthy project idea for how to cover the aftermath of events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and elsewhere that have unfolded over the last two years and come to be known as the Arab Awakening.

The reporting fellow will write guest posts for the GlobalPost blog “GroundTruth” and a polished work of enterprise reporting will be published as a GlobalPost “Special Report.”

A three-year grant for the “GroundTruth Fellowship” was provided by The Correspondents Fund and the fellowship will be directed by GlobalPost co-founder and executive editor Charles M. Sennott. The Overseas Press Club Foundation, on which Sennott serves as a board member, will administer the grant.

In announcing the fellowship, Sennott said: “We are very thankful to The Correspondents Fund for their support and we look forward to seeing the ideas of the applicants.”

“‘GroundTruth,’ as we call it at GlobalPost, is a belief that you need to be there on the ground to get the story. In an age in which too many journalists operate out of cubicles, we are committed to providing support for correspondents who live and breathe the story, who speak the language and who know the people and understand the culture from where they are reporting,” Sennott added.

“During the last two years,” Sennott said, “the Overseas Press Club and the community of foreign correspondents has lost too many great journalists in the Middle East who have risked their lives pursuing the stories that matter. This fellowship is in their collective honor and particularly in the spirit of the late foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid,” who had a long and distinguished reporting career in the Middle East for The A.P., The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

“Anthony was a great listener, and that is perhaps the single, most important quality of a great reporter,” said Sennott, referring to Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, who died last year while on assignment in Syria for the Times.

Applicants are asked to submit a CV, five news writing samples, a cover letter to Charles Sennott explaining why they are qualified, and a project memo of no more than 500 words outlining an idea for one long-form narrative piece or several shorter pieces that would form a series. Please send the applications to ejudem@globalpost.com. The deadline for applications is March 28. The winner will be announced in mid April and the work will take place on a mutually agreed upon schedule for publishing in September 2013.

About GlobalPost
GlobalPost is the Peabody Award-winning world news site with outstanding original reporting from country-based journalists in all regions of the world. Noted by The New York Times as “offering a mix of news and features that only a handful of other news organizations can rival,” GlobalPost offers fresh, in-depth perspective on the changing global picture that affects us all by combining traditional journalistic values and the power of new media.