Quinnipiac University will honor NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and the late CBS News correspondent Bob Simon at its 22nd annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award luncheon at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, June 9, at the Metropolitan Club, One East 60th St., New York.
This invitation-only event is not open to the public.
Engel will receive the Fred Friendly Award, while Simon will be recognized posthumously with the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award.
“There is a characteristic that is shared by all great journalists: the willingness to run towards danger when others are running away from it,” said Lee Kamlet, dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac. “Between them, Bob Simon and Richard Engel have 70 years of experience, much of it spent in war zones, stretching from Southeast Asia to the Middle East to the conflict in Ireland. Time and again throughout their careers, Richard and Bob put themselves in harm’s way to do what is necessary in order to inform the public.”
Since 1994, the School of Communications has presented the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award to honor those who have shown courage and forthrightness in preserving the rights set forth in the First Amendment. The award bears the name of the former CBS News president and champion of freedom of speech.
“This is a tremendous honor,” Engel said. “I struggle to find and tell stories in a way that’s compassionate, informative and, whenever possible, reveals something about our basic human nature, our need to survive, our longing for adventure, our comfort in family and brotherhood, and tragically, the darkness that so often comes out when we come into too much contact with guns and money and power.”
Engel is widely regarded as one of America’s leading foreign correspondents for his coverage of wars, revolutions and political transitions around the world over the last 20 years. He has been recognized for his outstanding reporting on the 2011 revolution in Egypt, the conflict in Libya and unrest throughout the Arab world.
“It is fitting that we are giving this year’s Fred Friendly First Amendment Award to Richard Engel,” Kamlet said. “Although Fred and Richard are from two different eras of broadcast journalism, they have one thing in common: the desire to speak truth to power, no matter the consequences.”
Engel was named chief foreign correspondent of NBC News in April 2008. His reports appear on all platforms of NBC News, including “NBC Nightly News,” “Today,” “Meet the Press,” “Dateline,” and NBCNews.com. His reports also frequently appear on the cable news network MSNBC.
“For nearly 20 years, I’ve mainly lived in and covered the Middle East,” Engel said. “It has been a tumultuous time that has seen American ground wars, political revolutions and the emergence of a violent strain of religious intolerance that is born of deep historic grievances, ignorance and a profound chauvinism. I hope this too shall pass like other waves of insane hatred that have gripped nations and empires. But for all its warts and chaos, its traffic and yelling, I love the Middle East.
“I find the people immensely kind and generous and their stories endlessly fascinating. The Middle East will also always humble you because just when you think you understand it, it throws a curveball your way. Future generations of reporters will find many stories I have missed. There is still plenty to discover. We have only scratched the surface.”
Engel’s work has received numerous awards, including seven news and documentary Emmy Awards. Most recently, he was honored with a Peabody Award for his coverage of the rise of ISIS.
“Richard has had a front-row seat at some of the most important events overseas in the last two decades,” Kamlet said. “His wealth of knowledge and experience, particularly in the Middle East, has provided his viewers with special insight into one of the most intricate and, at times, most confounding parts of the world. At a time when less is being spent to fund reporting from overseas, Richard’s devotion to his craft is more important to our democracy than ever.”
Simon, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent and legendary CBS News foreign reporter, died Feb. 11, 2015, in a car accident in New York City. He was among a handful of elite journalists who covered most major overseas conflicts and news stories beginning in the late 1960s.
Simon earned an unprecedented number of awards. He had been contributing regularly to 60 Minutes since 1996. At the same time, he was a correspondent for all seven seasons of 60 Minutes II, from January 1999 to June 2005, after which he became a full-time 60 Minutes correspondent. The 2014-15 season was his 19th on the broadcast.
“Fred Friendly developed the concept of, ‘See it Now,’” Kamlet said. “Bob Simon lived it. From Saigon to ‘60 Minutes,’ he traveled to every corner of the world. One wonders how many passports he filled over the course of his five decades at CBS News. With incredible breadth and depth, he explored nearly every aspect of the human condition.”
This is the third time the Lifetime Achievement Award is being presented. It was awarded to Floyd Abrams in 2008 and Barbara Walters in 2014.
Previous recipients of the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award are: Dan Rather, Bill Moyers, Lesley Stahl, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Don Hewitt, Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, Christiane Amanpour, Tom Bettag, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer, Steve Kroft, Charles Gibson, Morley Safer, Gwen Ifill, David Fanning, Martha Raddatz and Scott Pelley.
Quinnipiac University to Honor Richard Engel & late Bob Simon
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