The McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage awarded annually by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is to be awarded to Jason Rezaian, a correspondent for The Washington Post, who spent 545 days of imprisonment in Iran.
Mr. Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, were arrested while working in Tehran, Iran’s capital, in July 2014 and indicted on espionage charges. He was the Post’s Tehran Bureau chief at the time.
While his wife was released in October, Mr. Rezaian was denied bail and kept from speaking with his attorney for the first seven months of his detainment.
He eventually was held for 545 days, the longest detention for a Western journalist in Iran, and no charges of wrongdoing were ever released.
The 2015 class of McGill Fellows chose Mr. Rezaian to receive the medal, named after Ralph McGill, the late editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution.
The McGill Medal is in its eighth year and is part of the McGill Program for Journalistic Courage at UGA’s Grady College. A McGill Symposium, which brings together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how reporters and editors exemplify it, is held annually.
A ceremony to present Mr. Rezaian, who holds dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, with the medal still is to be scheduled since he continues to be recovering from his ordeal.
GSU-CIBER is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Education Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Education newsletters.