Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward is the recipient of the 2025 Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism.
“We are delighted to present the Daniel Pearl Award to Clarissa Ward. Her career has been a consistent embodiment of courage and integrity — marked by an unwavering commitment to truth, fearless reporting from some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones, and steadfast dedication to journalistic ethics, even under immense pressure,” said Judea Pearl for The Daniel Pearl Foundation. “In particular, we salute her moral clarity and courage in refusing to dehumanize any side in the many conflicts she has covered. In doing so, she upholds the very ideals Daniel Pearl lived and died for — the pursuit of truth, compassion, and our shared humanity.”
“I’m deeply humbled and honored to receive the Daniel Pearl Award. Daniel was killed doing the work he loved just as I was starting my career, and his courage and integrity have stayed with me ever since,” Ward said. “This recognition means more than I can say — thank you.”
Ward’s career in journalism started in 2002 as an intern at CNN’s Moscow bureau. She has since been based in Baghdad, Beijing, Beirut, Moscow, New York, and London. She has been with CNN in London since 2015, and in 2019, she succeeded Christiane Amanpour as CNN’s chief international correspondent.
Ward speaks fluent French and Italian, conversational Russian, Arabic, and Spanish, and basic Mandarin. She graduated with distinction from Yale University.
Since 2002, the Los Angeles Press Club, in conjunction with Judea and Ruth Pearl, the parents of slain Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl, have bestowed the Daniel Pearl Award on brave journalists from around the globe. In recent years, The Daniel Pearl Foundation has been part of the presentation. The 2025 award will be presented by Judea Pearl at an awards gala dinner at the Biltmore hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 22.
Past recipients include Evan Gershkovich, Nima Elbagir, Jason Rezaian, Charlie Hebdo, Richard Engel, Anna Politkovskaya, Raif Badawi and Bob Woodruff.
The awards gala will also feature a special tribute honoring local TV stations in Los Angeles for their indispensable coverage of recent wildfires.
Bill Plaschke, a 40-year veteran Los Angeles Times columnist, will be bestowed with the Joseph M Quinn Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The SoCal Awards Gala is a fundraiser for this 501c3 charitable organization and makes it possible for us to run the club, provide much-needed scholarships, grants, and fellowships to journalists from underserved communities, as well as fund our educational programming for the rest of the year.
To buy tickets, advertise or sponsor this event with a tax-deductible donation, go to LAPressClub.org or contact [email protected].
LAPC is one of the oldest and most respected journalist organizations in the nation, with a storied history of honoring the most celebrated reporters of the past century. In recent years, the Los Angeles Press Club has continued to uphold its tradition of acknowledging excellence in spite of the fact that journalism itself has been under attack and struggled in the face of ever-declining budgets.
