Photojournalist receives 2017 McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage

A photojournalist who has visited more than 60 countries covering history-shaping events and who just won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, is the 2017 recipient of the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage.

Daniel Berehulak, a freelance journalist and regular contributor to the New York Times, will receive the medal from the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and its McGill Program for Journalistic Courage. The award ceremony is expected to take place in fall 2017.

Berehulak was scheduled to accept the medal April 10, however, he rescheduled at the last minute in anticipation that he would be awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize that same day.  His Pulitzer Prize was awarded for his  written and photographic coverage of murders in the Philippines that appeared in a multi-media feature on the New York Times website. In March, he won the Oliver Rebbot Award and a Polk Award for the same coverage.

Berehulak’s coverage includes the Iraq War, the trial of Saddam Hussein, child labor in India, Afghanistan elections and the return of Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan. He has documented people coping with the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan and the Chernobyl disaster. Samples of his photography can be viewed on his website at DanielBerehulak.com.

Berehulak, who is based in Mexico City, has also won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography, five World Press Photo awards, two Photographer of the Year awards from Pictures of the Year International and the prestigious John Faber Award from the Overseas Press Club.

The McGill Medal 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.

The selection of Berehulak was made by the 2016 class of McGill Fellows, 12 undergraduate and graduate students chosen for academic achievement, practical experience and leadership.

The McGill Medal, now in its ninth year, is part of the McGill Program for Journalistic Courage at UGA’s Grady College.

For nearly 40 years, 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.

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

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