Board of Directors = Support The Fund = About Kurt = News = Resources

Home

About the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund

It was the work of freelancers and local journalists that Kurt Schork valued above all.  As a result, Kurt Schork’s family  - in establishing the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund - decided the best way to honor his legacy was to acknowledge those journalists with whom he had a particular bond.  The Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism were created to honor fearless freelance news reporting, and those journalists who cannot leave their country when the story becomes secondary to survival.  Two annual prizes of $5,000 each are awarded, one to a freelance journalist covering foreign news, and the second to a local journalist in the developing world or countries in transition.

The goal of the KSMF is not just to honor these journalists, but also to assist them with a monetary award that provides some financial means to help them continue reporting.  Though local journalists from the developing world take extraordinary risks to expose corruption and injustice in their homeland, they rarely earn enough money to support themselves and their families.  Freelancers live from job to job, never knowing when the next assignment will come, where it may lead, or how long it will last.

The Important Work of Freelance and Local Journalists

Over the years many news organizations have dramatically cut back or closed their foreign bureaus during an era in which many Americans indicated they had little interest in what was happening outside their immediate universe.  The war in Iraq has placed an extraordinary burden on new organizations and journalists.  With coverage spanning all hours of the day and everyday of the week, news consumers globally are demanding up-to-date reports from the very front lines of battle.

This appetite for news has left many news organizations stretched to limit with a need to place reporters, photographers and producers in America, Britain, Qatar, Iraq and Kuwait.  All of this is in addition the need to maintain reporters and correspondents working in other global hot spots such as Afghanistan, Korea, Hong Kong, Israel and others.

The ongoing unrest in the Middle East and elsewhere has changed and the danger faced by journalists has become increasingly clear.  There has been a dramatic increase in American’s effort to gather accurate and hard-to-get information from abroad.  With very few resources, freelancers and local reporters are faced with hostile and dangerous environments, and they tend to be most vulnerable to unfriendly governments.  At the same time, these journalists now have to work even harder to bring attention to their stories as news consumers are able to turn to a variety of sources for information.

In the United States, and throughout the world, there are countless journalists who are committed to reporting accurately and objectively on social and political challenges around the globe.  However, this reporting is not without cost.  Many of these dedicated journalists, sadly, have lost their lives in their attempt to shed light in dark places.  According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, thirteen journalists died in the war in Iraq; three of those deaths were freelance journalists.

Throughout the world, countries struggle to promote social, economic and political change.  In each of these places, it is often the work of freelance and local journalists that brings these struggles to the attention of the broader, global community.  Through such attention, those searching for a better life for their communities draw allies and supporters into a dialogue that can make an important difference in these countries. 

Recent events in Iraq have highlighted the threats that many journalists face. On March 22, 2003 Australian freelance cameraman Paul Moran was killed in a bombing as he and a colleague were stopped at a check-point in northeast Iraq.  In early 2002, we all watched the story of Daniel Pearl unfold before us.  We watched as he was taken hostage in late January and then found murdered a month later.  These are the journalists, the one’s that put their lives on the line, that the Fund wishes to honor. 

Top of Page

Establishing the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund

Currently, Reuters, through its Global News division, is supporting the Fund while it is getting established.  The Fund has a small Board of Directors composed of family members and close friends.  The Fund has assembled an international Advisory Board to guide the process and to assist the organization with fundraising. 

With this Advisory Board in place, the Fund is moving forward with an international fundraising campaign to build an endowment fund of approximately $2 million that will sustain the program into the future.  In order to raise this money, various constituencies are being explored, including reaching out to foundations and corporations for support.  Further, as endowment dollars are raised, the KSMF is seeking current-use, programmatic dollars to run the program now.

Beyond the Fund’s primary goal of honoring these journalists, the KSMF is committed to educating students and the general public about the obstacles faced by freelance and local journalists.  For example, in June 2001, in cooperation with the Freedom Forum, the KSMF hosted a panel discussion at the First Amendment Center in New York.  Freelance and local journalists from Liberia, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and Canada joined a moderator from The New York Times in a discussion that addressed the challenges that these journalists face everyday and the role they play as they go about reporting the news from around the globe.  The KSMF also assists two journalism students at Columbia University through annual scholarship support of $10,000. 

HOME