Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism
Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs
Colby’s hub for politics, policy, and the press.
Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism
The Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award of Colby, established in 1952, is awarded to a journalist who continues the Lovejoy heritage of fearlessness and commitment to American freedom of the press. The award is granted annually to a member of the press, regardless of title, who, in the opinion of selection committee members, has contributed to the country’s journalistic achievement.
Bill Owens
Bill Owens, former executive producer of 60 Minutes and winner of multiple Emmy Awards, will receive the 2025 Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism from Colby College on October 24. The event includes the presentation of the award and a conversation with Amna Nawaz, co-anchor of PBS Newshour and a member of the selection committee. President Greene will offer remarks and present the award.
A 37-year veteran with CBS News, Owens is highly regarded as a champion for independent decision making and for his commitment to the truth. He began his career with CBS News in 1988 and joined the management team of 60 Minutes as senior broadcast producer in 2007, having previously held the same title for the CBS Evening News. For the next 12 years, he supervised 60 Minutes’ content as senior producer and executive editor. He was named executive producer in 2019.
Owens made headlines in April when he stepped down from 60 Minutes, citing intrusions on his journalistic independence.
“Every year, in tribute to Elijah Lovejoy, we honor a journalist who embodies the principles of freedom of the press—one of the most fundamental and important elements of our democracy,” said President David A. Greene. “Bill Owens, like Lovejoy, refused to compromise his commitment to independent reporting. In doing so, he brought public attention to the internal pressures that threaten a free and independent press. We are grateful for the opportunity to honor him.”
The public is invited to attend the free event at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24, in the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts on Colby’s campus.
About Elijah Parish Lovejoy
Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born in Albion, Maine, Nov. 9, 1802, the son of a Congregational minister. He graduated in 1826 from Waterville College (now Colby), where he was valedictorian and class poet.
At age 29 he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary. While there he was persuaded to return to Missouri to launch a religious newspaper, the St. Louis Observer. He was named editor. Lovejoy wrote moderately about slavery, and his views were at first acceptable in Missouri, a slave state. As fear of slave uprisings increased, an incident occurred during which a freed man was trapped and killed. When the mob leaders were freed by the court, Lovejoy vehemently criticized the decision. His press was destroyed and his home burglarized.
He moved across the river to the free state of Illinois, where he believed he could write without fear. When his press was shipped to Alton, however, thugs smashed it at the dock. Local citizens raised money for a new press, and Lovejoy published successfully for a year. His position on slavery hardened, and on July 6, 1837, he published another editorial condemning the practice. That night his press was again destroyed. He bought another, which was also destroyed. Friends then organized a militia and secretly bought and installed another press.
The Story of Lovejoy
On the night of Nov. 7, 1837, a mob attacked the new press. The militia fought back, killing one. The mob eventually set fire to the building, drove out the militia. Lovejoy was shot and killed as he attempted to extinguish the blaze.
He was buried Nov. 9, his 35th birthday. John Quincy Adams called him the “first American martyr to the freedom of the press and the freedom of the slave.”
On Sept. 29, 2000, Lovejoy was inducted into the Maine Press Hall of Fame.
Listen to an engaging conversation with Ken Ellingword, author of ‘First to Fall,’ a book about the legacy of Elijah Lovejoy on National Public Radio’s (NPR) Morning Edition at the link below.
Award Mission
The purpose of the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award is threefold:
- To honor and preserve the memory of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, America’s first martyr to freedom of the press and a Colby College graduate (valedictorian, Class of 1826) who died bravely rather than forsake his editorial principles.
- To stimulate and honor the kind of achievement in the field of reporting, editing, and interpretive writing that continues the Lovejoy heritage of fearlessness and freedom.
- To promote a sense of mutual responsibility and cooperative effort between a news industry devoted to journalistic freedom and a liberal arts college dedicated to academic freedom.
Award Criteria
Nominees must be reporting for a U.S.-based outlet. Nominations are accepted throughout the year and may be emailed to [email protected]. Once all nominations are received, the selection committee recommends finalists for the award on the basis of:
- Integrity, without which no news organization can function in its traditional role as a public servant.
- Craftsmanship, without which no one can succeed as a journalist.
- Character, intelligence, and courage.
- Potential of the work to stimulate engaging campus conversations around important issues of our times.
Lovejoy Selection Committee Members
Current Members
- Martin Kaiser, Chair
Editor and Senior Vice President, retired, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Nancy Barnes
Editor, Boston Globe - Brian Carovillano ’95
Senior Vice President, Standards and Editorial Partnerships, Versant Media - Sewell Chan
Senior Fellow, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Policy and Leadership - Neil Gross
Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology, Colby College - Katrice Hardy
CEO, The Marshall Project - Amna Nawaz, LL.D.’23
Co-anchor, PBS NewsHour - Ron Nixon
Director of the Associated Press Local Investigative Journalism Program
Ex-Officio Members
- David A. Greene
President, Colby College - Richard Uchida ’79
Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary, Colby College - Jane Powers ’86
Chair, Colby College Board of Trustees - Alison Beyea
Executive Director, Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs, Colby College
Lovejoy Selection Committee Secretary
- Ruth Jackson
Vice President and Chief of Staff, Colby College
4600 Mayflower Hill
Watervillle, Maine 04901
[email protected]
- 2024: Jacqueline Charles
- 2023: Evan Gershkovich
- 2022: Evgeniy Maloletka and Mstyslav Chernov
- 2021: Matt Apuzzo ’00 (recused), Adam Entous, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau, Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima, Michael S. Schmidt, and Barbara Starr
- 2020: Leonard Pitts Jr.
- 2019: Honoring the Journalists Who Sacrificed Their Lives in 2018
- 2018: Chuck Plunkett
- 2017: Alec MacGillis
- 2016: Alissa Rubin
- 2015: Katherine Boo
- 2014: James Risen
- 2013: A.C. Thompson
- 2012: Bob Woodward
- 2011: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
- 2010: Alfredo Corchado
- 2009: Paul Salopek
- 2008: Anne Hull
- 2007: John Burns
- 2006: Jerry Mitchell
- 2005: Cynthia Tucker
- 2004: Louis “Studs” Terkel
- 2003: Mills and Maurice Possley
- 2002: Daniel Pearl
- 2001: Tom and Pat Gish
- 2000: Bill Kovach
- 1999: William Raspberry
- 1998: Ellen Goodman
- 1997: David Halberstam
- 1996: John Seigenthaler
- 1995: Murray Kempton
- 1994: Eugene Patterson
- 1993: Eileen Shanahan
- 1992: Sydney H. Schanberg
- 1991: Robert C. Maynard
- 1990: David Broder
- 1989: Eugene L Roberts Jr
- 1988: John Kifner
- 1987: Paul Simon
- 1986: Herb Block
- 1985: Mary McGrory
- 1984: Thomas Winship
- 1983: Anthony Lewis
- 1982: W. E. Chilton III
- 1981: A. M. Rosenthal
- 1980: Roger Tatarian
- 1979: Katherine Fanning
- 1978: Jack C. Landau
- 1978: Clayton Kirkpatrick
- 1977: Donald Bolles
- 1976: Vermont Royster
- 1975: Davis Taylor
- 1974: James Reston
- 1973: Katharine Graham
- 1972: Dolph C Simons, Jr
- 1971: Erwin D. Canham
- 1969: John S. Knight
- 1968: Carl T. Rowan
- 1967: Edwin Lahey
- 1966: Otis Chandler
- 1965: Colbert Augustus McKnight
- 1964: John Hay Whitney
- 1963: Louis M. Lyons
- 1962: Thomas More Storke
- 1961: Bernard Kilgore
- 1960: Ralph McGill
- 1959: Clark R. Mollenhoff
- 1958: John N. Heiskell
- 1957: Buford Boone
- 1956: Arthur Hays Sulzberger
- 1955: Charles A. Sprague
- 1954: James Russell Wiggins
- 1953: Irving Dilliard
- 1952: James S. Pope