AP names 9 winners of Gramling Awards

The Associated Press has named nine members of its worldwide staff, including three in the Middle East, as winners of its 2007 Gramling Awards for excellence.

The awards selection committee's recognition of the AP presence in hostile environments was particularly apt this year because of the dangers reporters have faced in trying to cover conflicts in the Middle East, AP President and CEO Tom Curley said Tuesday.

"This year's winners distinguished themselves as role models. Their achievements are the result of exceptional focus despite sometimes life-threatening obstacles," Curley said.

The honorees also include a bureau supervisor regarded as a role model for AP editors on deadline, a multimedia investigative journalist with a knack for breaking stories, a London-based technologist who helped establish a new Arabic language wire and the Web manager for the AP Television News client site.

The awards, now in their 14th year, are given annually to staff members whose work and initiative contribute significantly to the news report and to overall AP operations.

The awards are named after Oliver S. Gramling, the AP newsman and executive who in 1941 developed AP's first radio wire. Gramling bequeathed his estate to the AP when he died in 1992, directing that it be used for AP staff members nominated for excellence by their colleagues.

A committee of AP bureau and department managers selected the winners.

The committee also paid special tribute to the team of researchers, writers, editors and others who contributed to the success of AP's first history book in six decades, "BREAKING NEWS: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else" (Princeton Architectural Press, June 2007).

This year's winners:

_ Gramling Journalism Awards ($10,000 each): John Antczak and Sharon Theimer. The committee said Antczak, a supervisor in the Los Angeles bureau, is a model for the skills an AP editor should possess as the guiding hand behind the best possible journalism while upholding the news ethics and standards that define the AP, all while on deadline. Theimer, of the Washington-based Multimedia Investigative Team, was cited for groundbreaking work in producing content across all AP formats.

_ Gramling Achievement Awards ($10,000 each): Arif Ali and Tracey Rogers. Ali, London-based regional product director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, was cited for overseeing the technical creation and implementation of a host of international services, including AP Headline and most recently an Arabic language wire. Rogers, Web manager for AP Television News, was honored for using innovation and technology to turn the aptn.com Web site into a comprehensive, user-friendly communications tool in the video news business.

_ Gramling Spirit Awards ($3,000 each): Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Baghdad-based reporter; Ibrahim Barzak, AP's correspondent in the Gaza Strip; Bassam Hatoum, Beirut-based senior producer for AP Television News, and New York-based science writer Malcolm Ritter. Abdul-Zahra was cited for breaking stories and covering the Iraqi government at great personal risk to himself and his loved ones; Barzak for straightforward, unbiased journalism in a highly politicized news atmosphere, often while under fire; and Hatoum for inspiring a team of staffers and stringers across all AP formats in Lebanon and never failing to win on a story. Ritter was honored for being the ultimate team player who freely gives his time to assist any AP journalist requesting help and for creating the AP Science Wiki page, a resource used by writers around the world.

_ Gramling Scholarship Award ($3,000): Peter Prengaman, Los Angeles-based immigration/diversity reporter, whose plan for advanced Arabic studies at UCLA is aimed at strengthening his current beat and bringing him closer to his goal of being an AP news manager in the Middle East or North Africa.

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