Journalist from Egypt Awarded Daniel Pearl Fellowship Will Spend Six Months as Working Reporter in U.S. Newsrooms

LOS ANGELES, CA., March 16, 2007 - LOS ANGELES, CA. - The Daniel Pearl Foundation (www.danielpearl.org) announced today that Mr. Amr Emam from Egypt is this year’s recipients of the Daniel Pearl Fellowships and will be hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle. The Daniel Pearl Fellowships are underwritten by the Daniel Pearl Foundation and administered by the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships. The program was created by Alfred Friendly, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning former managing editor of The Washington Post. It is an opportunity for promising, mid-career foreign journalists to work for six months in a U.S. newsroom, and get to know the U.S. press from the inside.

“The Daniel Pearl Fellowships are awarded to journalists who exemplify the spirit and professionalism that was Danny’s hallmark,” stated Judea Pearl, father of the slain reporter, and President of the Daniel Pearl Foundation. “Danny was noted for his open-minded coverage of the Muslim world and gift for portraying the human side of complex international problems. We are pleased that this year’s Fellows are once again from the Middle East where free press environment is crucial to the emergence of open and democratic societies.”

Amr Emam, 28, joined the Egyptian Gazette in 2003 as an English translator, after which he began covering local events and writing stories on a variety of issues as a reporter. His passion is to create change in Egypt through balanced reporting, and to provide coverage of issues important to Egypt and its people. Emam previously worked as the English news editor for Islamonline.net, (2002-2003) and as English news editor for Xinhua (2006). Emam earned his B.A. in English from Cairo University in 2000. He will be working as a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Previous Daniel Pearl Fellows – three from Pakistan, one from Nepal and one from Yemen – have worked at The Berkshire Eagle/North Adams Transcript, Los Angeles Times and the Washington, DC bureau of The Wall Street Journal.

About the Daniel Pearl Foundation
The Daniel Pearl Foundation was formed in 2002 in memory of journalist Daniel Pearl to promote the ideals that inspired his life and work. The world came to know Daniel Pearl as The Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered by terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan. Since then, he has been remembered more for his humanity and love of life than his senseless death. The Daniel Pearl Foundation works domestically and internationally to promote cross-cultural understanding, to combat cultural and religious hatred, to encourage responsible and creative journalism, and to enrich people’s lives through music. For more information please visit www.danielpearl.org.

Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships
The Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships, set up in 1983 to train foreign journalists in US newsrooms, assists promising young and mid-career journalists from developing-world countries where press freedom is newly established or at least in prospect by immersing them in the day-to-day practices of the American press. The program, among whose graduates are top editors in Colombia, Croatia, Ghana, Hungary, Indonesia, Malawi, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, the Philippines, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey and Zimbabwe, is unique in US journalism education in the length of stay and the hands-on training it provides. Successful AFPF applicants receive a six-month, in-depth, practical introduction to US print media, working as staff reporters in American newsrooms in major (or mid-size) cities. For additional information please visit www.pressfellowships.org.