Shorenstein Journalism Award
2021 Award Nominations
Nominations for the 2021 Shorenstein Journalism Award are now open. Submissions are accepted through February 15, 2021, at 11:59 PM PST.
About the Shorenstein Journalism Award
The Shorenstein Journalism Award, which carries a cash prize of US $10,000, recognizes outstanding journalists who have spent their careers helping audiences around the world understand the complexities of the Asia-Pacific region, defined broadly to include Northeast, Southeast, South, and Central Asia and Australasia. Award recipients are veteran journalists with a distinguished body of work. News organizations are also eligible for the award.
The award is sponsored and presented by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) at Stanford University. It honors the legacy of the Center’s benefactor, Mr. Walter H. Shorenstein, and his twin passions for promoting excellence in journalism and understanding of Asia. It also symbolizes the Center’s commitment to journalism that persistently and courageously seeks accuracy, deep reporting, and nuanced coverage in an age when attacks are regularly launched on the independent news media, on fact-based truth, and on those who tell it.
An annual tradition, the Shorenstein Journalism Award alternates between recipients whose work has mostly been conveyed through American news media and recipients whose work has mostly been conveyed through news media in one or more parts of the Asia-Pacific region. Included among the latter candidates are journalists who are from the region and work there, and who, in addition to their recognized excellence, may have helped defend and encourage free media in one or more countries in the region.
The award ceremony is held at Stanford in the autumn quarter. The presentation of the award is followed by the honoree's keynote address, which headlines a public panel discussion on a topic relevant to his/her work.
Award Selection Committee
The Award Selection Committee presides over the judging of nominees and is responsible for the selection of honorees. The current members of the committee are:
Wendy Cutler, Vice President and Managing Director, Washington, D.C. Office, Asia Society Policy Institute
James Hamilton, Hearst Professor of Communication, Chair of the Department of Communication, and Director of the Stanford Journalism Program, Stanford University
Raju Narisetti, Publisher, McKinsey Global Publishing, McKinsey and Company
Philip Pan, Weekend Editor, former Asia Editor, The New York Times
Prashanth Parameswaran, Director, Bower Group Asia, and Senior Columnist, The Diplomat
Award Nominations
Nominations for the 2021 Shorenstein Journalism Award are now open through February 15, 2021.
Tom Wright, winner of the 2020 Shorenstein Journalism Award, details 1MDB Global Financial Scandal
Wright, who led the multiyear investigation that exposed the 1MDB Malaysian financial scandal, one of the largest-ever financial frauds, highlights the complicity of Western institutions in abetting corruption and undermining democracy in Asia >>
Award Winners
Award Winners
Maria Ressa, 2019 Winner
Maria Ressa, 2019 Winner
Anna Fifield, 2018 Winner
Anna Fifield, 2018 Winner
Siddharth Varadarajan, 2017 Winner
Siddharth Varadarajan, 2017 Winner
Ian Johnson, 2016 Winner
Ian Johnson, 2016 Winner
Yoichi Funabashi, 2015 Winner
Yoichi Funabashi, 2015 Winner
Complete List of Winners
2019 - Maria Ressa
CEO and Executive Editor, Rappler
2018 - Anna Fifield
Beijing Bureau Chief, the Washington Post
2017 - Siddharth Varadarajan
Founder and Editor, the Wire
2016 - Ian Johnson
Author and frequent contributor to the New York Times, New York Review of Books, the New Yorker and National Geographic
2015 - Yoichi Funabashi
Former Editor-in-Chief, the Asahi Shimbun
2014 - Jacob Schlesinger
Senior Asia Economics Correspondent and Central Banks Editors - Asia, the Wall Street Journal
2013 - Aung Zaw
Founder and Editor, the Irrawaddy
2012 - Barbara Demick
Beijing Bureau Chief, the Los Angeles Times
2011 - Caixin Media
Independent, Beijing-based media company
2010 - Barbara Crossette
Former Foreign Correspondent, the New York Times
2009 - Seth Mydans
Southeast Asia Correspondent, the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune
2008 - Ian Buruma
Writer and the Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism, Bard College
2007 - John Pomfret
Former Beijing Bureau Chief, the Washington Post
2006 - Melinda Liu
Beijing Bureau Chief, Newsweek
2005 - Nayan Chanda
Former Editor and Correspondent, the Far Eastern Economic Review
2004 - Donald Oberdorfer
Former Diplomatic Correspondent, the Washington Post
2003 - Orville Schell
Journalist and former Dean, School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley
2002 - Stanley Karnow
Former foreign correspondent and Pulitzer-prize winning historian
Journalism Across Asia
To mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Shorenstein Journalism Award, our honorees shared reflections on what the future holds for journalism in and about Asia.
History of the Shorenstein Journalism Award
The Shorenstein Journalism Award was established in 2002 and named after Mr. Walter H. Shorenstein, a visionary businessman, philanthropist, and activist who endowed two institutions that are focused respectively on Asia and on the press: the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, and the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
In its first years, the award was a joint effort of the two centers. It was originally designed to honor distinguished journalists at leading American media for their work on the Asia-Pacific. In 2010, Walter Shorenstein passed away and Stanford’s Shorenstein APARC became the sole sponsor of the award. The decision to continue the award was made not only to honor Mr. Shorenstein’s legacy but also to acknowledge the necessity of free and vibrant media for the future of U.S.-Asia relations.
Shorenstein APARC then re-envisioned the award in recognition of the fact that the Asia-Pacific region had served as a crucible for the role of the press in democratization in places such as South Korea, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia. In 2011, the scope of the award was broadened to include distinguished journalists who are from and work in the Asia-Pacific at the forefront of the battle for press freedom, and who have helped advance mutual understanding between their home countries and the United States. It was also decided that, in addition to individuals, organizations would be eligible for the award.