Lynsey Addario named recipient of the 2023 McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage

Lynsey Addario has been named the recipient of the 2023 McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage, awarded by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Addario is an American photojournalist who has been covering conflict, humanitarian crises and women’s issues around the Middle East and Africa on assignment for The New York Times and National Geographic for more than two decades. 

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Addario has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Darfur, South Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Syria and the ongoing war in Ukraine. 

Nominations for the medal came from journalists and journalism educators from across the country. The 2023 class of McGill Fellows, 12 students chosen for academic achievement, practical experience and leadership, researched the nominees and made the selection.  

“Lynsey Addario’s commitment to shedding light on global crises is admirable and inspiring. Her nuanced documentary work has navigated topics including maternal mortality, the effects of war on children and climate change, and Addario treats each of her stories with great care,” said Skyli Alvarez, a McGill Fellow responsible for researching the nomination. “Her selection for the McGill medal could not be more well-deserved.”  

The fellows will present the McGill medal on Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 4 p.m. in the Special Collections Libraries Auditorium. Following the presentation, Addario will deliver the 43rd McGill Lecture. The event is free and open to the public.  

For more than four decades, the McGill lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to UGA to help the university honor McGill’s courage as an editor. In 2007, UGA added the McGill Symposium, bringing together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how reporters and editors exemplify it. The medal was added in 2009.  

“All of this is for a single purpose: to advance journalistic courage,” said Diane H. Murray, the Grady College’s director of alumni relations and outreach and director of the McGill program.  

The McGill program is named for Ralph McGill, the late editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution. McGill was regarded by many as “the conscience of the South” for his editorials challenging racial segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. 

For more information on the program, see www.grady.uga.edu/mcgill.