Thursday, June 17, 2004 6:21 PM
BY CHRIS WOODYARD AND JILL STEWART
The Los Angeles Press Club is greatly honored to welcome two members of the late Daniel Pearl’s family to the 2004 Southern California Journalism Awards on June 12, at which Mariane Pearl will present the award named in her husband’s honor to two courageous journalists work- ing for TIME in Iraq, and Daniel’s father Judea Pearl will offer thoughts on the meaning of his son’s death as global conflicts rage.
Mariane Pearl will present the Los Angeles Press Club Daniel Pearl Award for integrity and courage in journalism to TIME investigative correspondent Michael Weisskopf and contract photographer James Nachtwey. The globe-trotting Nachtwey cannot attend the event due to assignments, but Weisskopf, who lost his hand while saving others in Iraq, will accept the award before a contingent of his family and friends.
The club’s Board of Directors selected the two men in consultation with the Pearl family, which is active in supporting the concept of the award. Each year, the club makes a donation to the Daniel Pearl Foundation.
Before her husband’s kidnapping and execution in Pakistan, Mariane Pearl, a journalist and Paris native now based in New York, had reported from Pakistan about how the U.S. war in Afghanistan was being covered by the media. Since her hus- band’s death she has authored a book about the tragedy, “A Mighty Heart,” and has penned numerous articles for The New York Times and others about fighting terrorism.
She is currently working to establish a center in Virginia that celebrates freedom of religion, and says that despite the battered image of the U.S. in the world right now, “I think only in America could they put together a center like this one.”
Judea Pearl, a professor of computer science at UCLA, is president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation (www.danielpearl.org) and co-edited the book, “I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl.” An eloquent speaker and writer, he has become more vocal since the beheading in Iraq of young Philadelphian Nicholas Berg.
Writing on May 18 for the Wall Street Journal, Judea explained that because his son Daniel was a “victim of a similar attack on humanity” he felt compelled to communicate a message directly to the numerous friends Daniel had made in the Muslim world before his death.
In his op ed for the Journal the week after the Berg beheading, Judea Pearl wrote:
“No civilized society can survive the inten- sity of modern conflicts unless such killings are repelled back to the realm of the incon- ceivable. As a father of a person who experi- enced the horrors of captivity, I can personal- ly feel the anguish of the parents of the Iraqi prisoners who were abused in the Abu Ghraib prison. I nevertheless appeal to you, intellectual leaders of the Muslim community, to unilaterally refrain from joining the cycle of accusation of “who treated who worse” and help transform it into a contest of pride: “whose role models are more humane.” This transformation can become a reality if condemnations of last week’s horrors are not left to political leaders but become a public outcry at the grassroots level.”
The Press Club extends a gracious welcome to the Daniel Pearl Family on the occasion of its 46th Southern California Journalism Awards Banquet.
