NPR Awards

Since its founding in 1970, NPR has been honored with many awards for its coverage of world events. These include 39 George Foster Peabody Awards and 18 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, two of the most prestigious in broadcasting.

Find out more about awards from past years:
1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002

Our recent honors include:

The National Association of Science Writers' Science In Society Award has been given to Joe Palca and his colleagues Alison Richards and Jane Greenhalgh for stories broadcast by Morning Edition about why the US and UK are so different in their approaches to research involving human embryos. The NASW awards are given annually to recognize outstanding investigative and interpretive science reporting that explains why an issue in the sciences matters to society.

David Kestenbaum is the recipient of a prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The AAAS's Science Journalism Award was given to David for his story on All Things Considered about experiments underway to try to detect the elusive gravity waves predicted by Einstein 86 years ago. Alison Richards edited David's story.

Joe Palca Wins National Academies Communication Award for Excellence
Science Correspondent Joe Palca won a National Academies Communication Award for excellence in communicating science, engineering, and medicine to the general public. The award, one of the most prestigious for science reporting, was for Palca's coverage of cloning. His stories were edited by Alison Richards and some were produced by Rebecca Davis. This is the first year the National Academies have given this award, which carries a cash prize for each winner.

Anne Garrels Awarded "Courage in Journalism Award" from the International Women's Media Foundation for 2003
The IWMF's Courage in Journalism Awards honor women journalists who have shown extraordinary strength of character in the pursuit of a free press, despite financial hardships, censorship, physical attacks and death threats. The award announcement read, "Anne Garrels, 51, foreign correspondent with National Public Radio in the United States. Garrels' latest assignment was the war in Iraq. She was one of two U.S. women journalists inside Baghdad at the war's beginning. During the U.S. bombing of the Palestine Hotel, she was only a few floors away from the explosion that claimed the lives of two journalists. Garrels has often put herself at risk to bear witness to conflict in the globe's hotspots, including Israel and the Occupied Territories, Afghanistan, Chechnya, the former Soviet Union, Bosnia, Kosovo, Tiananmen Square and the Gulf War." The International Women's Media Foundation created the Courage in Journalism Awards in 1990 to honor women journalists who have shown exceptional courage and bravery in the face of grave danger.

Allison Keyes of The Tavis Smiley Show has won a Front Page award from the Newswomen's Club of New York for her piece, "No Knock Warrants."

Awards for NPR Communications
Recently, NPR Communications Has Won: Two Silver Inkwell Awards for Print Communications and Special Events NPR Communications won two 2003 Silver Inkwell Awards the "NPR Corporate Brochure" "The Bases Loaded Tour: A Home Run for NPR". The Silver Inkwell Award is formal recognition from the Washington chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) of work that meets the highest standards for communications professionals. Thoth Award for Media Relations NPR Communications was awarded the Thoth Award from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) DC Chapter for media relations surrounding the launch of The Tavis Smiley Show. Platinum PR Award for Marketing Communications NPR Communications received a Platinum PR Award for marketing communications surrounding the launch of The Tavis Smiley Show. The Platinum PR Awards underscore the creative and effective ways in which communications plays a key part in nearly ever area of business and community, and showcase the best practices in public relations.

2003 Clarion Awards from the Association for Women in Communications Honor NPR's Justice Talking; Also, "My So-Called Lungs," which aired on ATC
In the "Radio Regular Feature Program" category, Justice Talking won for "Indecency on the Airwaves." In the "Women's Issues Radio Program, One Time" Justice Talking won for "Legalizing Prostitution." In the "Radio Documentary, One Time, Public Radio" category, "My So-Called Lungs," which aired on ATC won. "My So-Called Lungs" was produced by Joe Richman, with Laura Rothenberg as diarist.

American Bar Association 2003 Silver Gavel Award Honorable Mention to American RadioWorks
In the radio category, "Deadly Decisions" by American RadioWorks in association with Minnesota Public Radio and NPR News were recognized for outstanding efforts to foster public understanding of the law.

NPR jazz programs won big in the 2003 New York Festivals International Radio Programming and Promotion Awards "recognizing the world's best work in news, information, entertainment, and on-air talent programming and promotion." Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz won a Gold WorldMedal in the entertainment category for "Best Regularly Scheduled Music Show." JazzSet with DeeDee Bridgewater won a Silver WorldMedal in the same category, for a tribute to Ray Brown.

NPR's "Housing First" Series was awarded a 2003 "Making a Difference Award" from the National Neighborhood Coalition, an umbrella group of nonprofit and community-based organizations. The award praised the series for examining "the lives of Americans facing significant challenges, social inequities, and affordable housing shortages. By showcasing the people affected by the country's lack of affordable housing, NPR has given a real-life context to often- complicated housing concerns."

NPR won big in the Edward R. Murrow Awards this year. Margo Melnicove's "Matt Savage: A Remarkable Jazz Pianist" (produced/edited by Tom Cole) won for best feature reporting by a radio network. NPR's On the Media won for best investigative reporting by a radio network. NPR's Living on Earth won for best use of sound by a radio network for a piece on "New Mexico Sound Art."

NPR Communications was a finalist in the 2002 SABRE Awards, an awards program honoring superior achievement in branding, media and reputation building. NPR was a Gold Award finalist for The Tavis Smiley Show launch promotion campaign. The division was a Silver Award finalist for the special promotion campaign, "NPR's Bases Loaded" national book tour.

Fred Child Wins Audie Award: The "Grammys of the audio book world" honored Performance Today host Fred Child with a top prize in the "original work" category for his reading of Getting to Know William Shakespeare.

Guy Raz Wins Arthur F. Burns Prize
The award was given for Raz's story, "Myth of Taboo," which appeared in Sueddeutsche Zeitung in 2002. This award is given annually by the German Foreign Office and the Board of Trustees of the International Journalists Program. Arthur Burns was U.S. Ambassador to Germany in the 1960s and 70s. The award committee includes the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer.

Ira Flatow, Host of Talk of the Nation Science Friday, Wins National Technology Leadership Award
The Central New York Technology Development Organization at Syracuse University presents the honor. (May 2003)

The Overseas Press Club 2002 Lowell Thomas Award for The Mideast: A Century of Conflict
The seven-part series, researched and reported by veteran NPR News correspondent Mike Shuster, chronicles key moments in the history of the struggle between the two peoples and featured interviews with experts representing a cross-section of historical perspectives. It concludes with investigations into the reasons why the Oslo Peace Process collapsed and how and why the second Intifada started. The series aired on NPR's Morning Edition. (April 2003)

Read more about that award.

NPR Communications Wins Two Addy Awards from American Advertising Federation
NPR Communications won two Addy Awards from the American Advertising Federation's annual regional competition. A print advertisement for the NGS/NPR series Radio Expeditions won a Citation of Excellence in the Consumer Print Campaign category. An invitation used in the opening of NPR West won an Addy in the category of Special Event Material. (April 2003)

Marc Rosenbaum Honored by National Council on Public Polls
Rosenbaum won honorable mention for the National Council on Public Polls Excellence in Media Coverage of Polls Award for 2002. The notice stated, "The reviewers felt very positively about your work on the NPR/Kaiser Family Foundation/Kennedy School of Government polls and reporting, especially the work on health care." (April 2003)

Find out more about the polls.

American Women in Radio and Television's Gracie Allen Award: NPR's series Present at the Creation
The series is recognized by AWRT for exemplary work created for women, by women and about women. Throughout 2002, listeners followed Present at the Creation on Morning Edition and online at npr.org. Produced and edited by Elizabeth Blair and NPR Online's Avie Schneider, the series explored the artistry and inventiveness behind the designs, sounds, images and writings that helped shape American culture. (April 2003)

Find out more.

62nd Annual George Foster Peabody Awards: Presented to The Yiddish Radio Project and The Sonic Memorial Project
Two special series featured on NPR's All Things Considered received two of the 2002 George Foster Peabody Awards, one of broadcasting's most prestigious honors.

The Sonic Memorial Project
This collaboration was spearheaded by NPR's Lost & Found Sound and The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva). It began in October 2001 when Lost & Found Sound and NPR opened a phone line for listeners to call in with their stories and audio artifacts relating to the Sept. 11 attacks and the history of the World Trade Center. The Project combines interviews, voice-mail messages, audio contributions from listeners, oral histories, home videos and recorded sounds in a series of stories. (April 2003)

The Yiddish Radio Project
Produced by MacArthur Fellow David Isay, musician/historian Henry Sapoznik and Sound Portrait Productions, each segment in the weekly series recaptures the Yiddish radio universe of the 1930s to 1950s. (April 2003)

NPR Communications Wins Gold Quill Award of Excellence for Media Relations
For more than 25 years, the International Association of Business Communicator's Gold Quill Awards annual competition has been the international hallmark of excellence in media relations. A Gold Quill goes to NPR Communications for the national press work surrounding the launch and first year of The Tavis Smiley Show. Total media coverage for The Tavis Smiley Show in 2002 exceeded 400 media placements, generating well over 40 million media impressions. (April 2003)

Bob Edwards Inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in Lexington, Ky.
In addition to receiving this honor, Edwards presented the Joe Creason lecture at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism. The Creason Lecture, named in honor of the late Joe Creason, a long-time Louisville Courier-Journal columnist, is part of a daylong event sponsored by University of Kentucky School of Journalism. (April 2003)

The Conference Board Annual Media Award to David Molpus
The Conference Board (The NY-based organization most known for its consumer confidence surveys) has selected NPR's former workplace correspondent David Molpus to receive their annual "Media Award." The Board's Work-Life Leadership Council gives the award each year to a journalist for "outstanding coverage on issues of the changing workplace and changing family." (April 2003)

See more of David Molpus's stories

RFK Lifetime Achievement Award to Daniel Schorr
Daniel Schorr, octogenarian, newsman, and the last of the legendary Edward R. Murrow news team still active in journalism, boasts six decades of reporting. Still fully engaged in the world watching that has made him one of America's most honored journalists, Schorr reported alongside Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite for CBS, started CNN with Ted Turner, and is now a senior news analyst for NPR. (April 2003)

See Daniel Shorr's latest stories and commentaries.

Find out more. Lincoln University of Missouri Presents NPR with Unity Awards in Media
The Unity Awards in Media recognize contributions to continuing standards of excellence in media through efforts that reflect accurate exposure of issues affecting minorities and disabled persons. In the radio category, an award for Best Public Affairs/Social Issues Entry (under 10 minutes) went to NPR's Margo Melnicove and Tom Cole for "Matt Savage," the All Things Considered report on the nine-year-old jazz phenomenon who has autism.

In the radio category, an award for Best Economics Report went to Daniel Zwerdling and Anne Gudenkauf for the American RadioWorks piece: "Fast Food and Animal Rights: McDonald's New Farm" heard on All Things Considered. (March 2003)

NPR News Wins Four First-Place National Headliner Awards
Founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City, the National Headliner Awards program is one of the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic merit in the communications industry. This year NPR won four awards, including: Best in Show to Steve Inskeep for his coverage of the raid on Mazar E Sharif, edited by Doug Roberts; First for Investigative Reporting to John Burnett and producer Marisa Penaloza for Burnett's coverage of "Corruption at the Gates," edited by Alisa Joyce Barba; First for Documentary Reporting to Mike Shuster for "The History of the Middle East" edited by Loren Jenkins; and First Place in Feature Reporting to Margo Melnicove and Tom Cole for "Matt Savage" on All Things Considered. (March 2003)

Gracie Allen Awards from American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT)
Once again, the American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) recognized NPR and NPR productions with Gracie Allen Awards ("Gracies") for exemplary work created for women, by women and about women. Gracie Allen Awards go to the Present at the Creation series on Morning Edition and npr.org, Jazz Profiles series Women in Jazz, Justice Talking reports "Legalizing Prostitution" and "Abortion Battles: Racketeering or Righteous Protest," and "Generations Radio Theater" on NPR Playhouse. (February 2003)

Ina Jaffe Wins California Journalism Award for Political Reporting
The award is sponsored by the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento. Jaffe's story was on the decline of black political power in L.A. since the Los Angeles riots. "Black Power Dwindles" was part of a series on Morning Edition. (February 2003)

Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award Silver Baton: Presented to NPR News for Coverage of Sept. 11 and the War in Afghanistan
From the first moments of live coverage following the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, to the fall of Tora Bora in Afghanistan and beyond, NPR News painted startling audio pictures of a changed nation and a changing world. Each story, essay and conversation about the terrorist attacks and their aftermath were designed to give the listener complete, thorough and in-depth information. (January 2003)

Find out more and see our expanded online coverage, "Voices of Reflection".