Reporters Committee celebrates 35th anniversary

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press will celebrate its 35th Anniversary Thursday night with a tribute to two distinguished journalists and the nation’s leading media lawyer.

Hosts for the event at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York will be NBC anchor Brian Williams and CBS’s Dan Rather.

Award winners will include 60 Minutes reporter Mike Wallace, who will be introduced by columnist Art Buchwald, and columnist Molly Ivins, who will be introduced by Al Franken. Media lawyer and First Amendment Award winner Floyd Abrams will be introduced by three special people who have challenged the government’s efforts to force them to identify their confidential sources: Time Magazine’s Matt Cooper, The New York Times’ Judith Miller and Providence television reporter Jim Taricani, who recently finished serving a home-confinement sentence for protecting his source.

Co-chairs for the event are New York Times chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Hearst corporation president and CEO Victor Ganzi, and E.W. Scripps president and CEO Kenneth Lowe.

The black tie reception starts at 6:30 p.m., dinner begins at 8 p.m.

The dinner is sold out, but reporters or photographers wishing to cover the reception should call Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy Dalglish at 301-379-5619.