MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Leopold at 847-491-4890 or w-leopold@northwestern.edu

April 5, 2005

Journalist Wins Medill Medal of Courage

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Washington Post reporter Emily Wax has been named the 2004 winner of the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism. Wax was chosen for outstanding reporting on the systematic violence that last year threatened millions of people in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Wax, chief of The Washington Post's Nairobi bureau since 2002, will speak about her coverage of Sudan at noon Monday, May 2, as part of the Crain Lecture Series at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Free and open to the public, her lecture will take place at the McCormick Tribune Center Forum, 1870 Campus Drive, Evanston campus.

“Last year's violence in Sudan came close to suffering the same benign neglect from governments and international institutions, including news organizations, that Rwanda faced in 1994,” said Loren Ghiglione, dean of the Medill School of Journalism. “Emily Wax defied this indifference and exhibited extraordinary courage in forcing the Sudan crisis onto The Post's front page and into public awareness.”

Medill sponsors the annual prize that honors the U.S. journalist who best displays moral, ethical or physical courage in pursuit of a story. Judges cited the humanity and originality with which Wax wrote her reports and her ability to create a profound bond between people in her stories and her readers. Where readers might otherwise avert their eyes, Wax captured their conscience, they said.

While other news outlets produced occasional stories about the Darfur crisis, Wax wrote 16 front-page stories for The Post, and many more inside the paper.

Since 2002, Wax, 30, has been based in Nairobi. She travels throughout Africa three weeks out of every month. Her stories have twice earned her entry into a select group of young journalists who are finalists for the prestigious Livingston Award for excellence by journalists under 35.