PBS NewsHour Named Recipient of duPont-Columbia Award

Arlington, VA (February 7, 2023) — PBS NewsHour was named the recipient of a duPont-Columbia Award for its extensive coverage of the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

This year’s winners were announced at a live ceremony Monday night at Columbia’s Low Memorial Library. The Alfred I. du-Pont Columbia University Awards are administered by the Columbia Journalism School. The ceremony was co-hosted by PBS NewsHour’s co-anchor Amna Nawaz and CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell.

More on PBS NewsHour’s award-winning coverage:

“The Fall of Afghanistan”

When 2021 began, few American networks were covering Afghanistan or had recently sent a team there. With support from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, PBS NewsHour special correspondent Jane Ferguson was on the ground in several Afghan provinces in July 2021 for her second PBS NewsHour trip of that year. Ferguson’s reporting highlighted the Afghan government’s dire situation as it struggled frantically to hold off the Taliban. In August 2021 as thousands of Afghans tried to flee the country from the Kabul airport, Ferguson was the only U.S. broadcaster reporting on the ground there at the time.

Summer 2021 to 2022 in Afghanistan was a severe era of upheaval and one of the nation’s most pivotal periods. The fall of Kabul was America’s greatest single foreign policy disaster since the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Credits: Morgan Till, Senior Foreign Affairs Producer; Jane Ferguson, Special Correspondent; Aleem Agha, Field Producer; Edris Lutfi, Field Producer; Ahmed Mengli, Field Producer; Layla Quran, Producer; Ali Latifi, Producer; Zach Fannin, Producer; Eric O’Connor, Videographer/ Editor; Zach Fannin, Videographer/ Editor; Sara Just, Senior Executive Producer.

“The War in Ukraine”

With support from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, PBS NewsHour foreign affairs and defense correspondent Nick Schifrin and special correspondents Jane Ferguson, Simon Ostrovsky, Ryan Chilcote, Willem Marx, Jack Hewson, Malcolm Brabant, and Volodymyr Solohub, fanned out across Ukraine and neighboring nations to report on the significant impact of Russia’s invasion of its coveted, former Soviet Republic in February 2022. With teams in Ukraine, Moldova, Russia itself, and Poland, NewsHour correspondents and producers brought the reality of major war in Europe home to viewers across the spectrum. From dodging airstrikes in Kharkiv to witnessing atrocities our Kyiv; from crossing rivers by boat to reunite families – if only by video, to following the men and women trying to keep the power supplied amid war, the PBS NewsHour delved into one of the largest stories of the year with vigor, empathy, and care.

Credits: Morgan Till, Senior Producer Foreign Affairs; Nick Schifrin, Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent; Jane Ferguson, Special Correspondent; Simon Ostrovsky, Special Correspondent; Ryan Chilcote, Special Correspondent; Willem Marx, Special Correspondent; Jack Hewson, Special Correspondent; Malcolm Brabant, Special Correspondent; Daniel Sagalyn, Deputy Senior Producer for Foreign Affairs and Defense; Volodymyr Solohub, Producer; Karl Bostic, Producer; Dmitri Frantsev, Producer; Roman Mortychuk, Producer; Teresa Cebrian Aranda, Producer; Ali Rogin, Producer; Alexis Cox, Producer; Harry Zahn, Producer; Elizabeth Bolaji, Producer; Lynsey Jeffery, Producer; Dorothy Hastings, Producer; Tommy Walters, Associate Producer; Shoshana Dubnow, Associate Producer; Madeline Powell, Production Assistant; Eric O’Connor, Videographer/Editor; Edward Ram, Videographer/Editor; Edward Kiernan, Videographer/Editor; Yegor Troyanovsky, Videographer/Editor; Jon Miles, Editor; Hamada Hanoura, Editor; Dan Knapp, Editor; Bob Hartman, Editor; John Morgan, Editor; Daniel J. Davis, Senior Motion Designer; Sara Just, Senior Executive Producer.

Press Contact: Ella Richardson, erichardson (at) newshour (dot) org