Images from the 2023 RIAS Media Awards Prize ceremony in Berlin
More than 200 journalists, politicians, board members, alumni and friends of the RIAS Berlin Commission joined US Ambassador Amy Gutmann and Grand Prize Winner Wolf Blitzer at the 2023 RIAS Berlin Commission awards ceremony in Berlin on Thursday, June 1. In her keynote speech, Gutmann said a free press is democracy’s essential ally and added it was a pleasure to join Wolf Blitzer and all of the prize winners to celebrate the achievements of an extraordinary group in defending democracy, and the values of a free world.
Blitzer won this year’s Grand Prize for his CNN documentary film “Never Again: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: A tour with Wolf Blitzer”. More than 100 RIAS Berlin alumni — journalists from the United States and Germany who have participated in RIAS Berlin exchange programs of one to three weeks over the last 32 years — were also at the ceremony that celebrates outstanding radio, TV and digital stories with a transatlantic or universal message that were aired in either of those two countries in 2022.
German journalist Claus Kleber was honored with a “Lifetime Achievement” award for his career in both the United States and Germany reporting on transatlantic issues, starting with his work at as the editor of the RIAS (Radio in American Sector) radio station in the late 1980s to his work as a foreign correspondent in Washington DC and later as the anchor of the popular “Heute Journal” evening newscast on ZDF television from Mainz. Kleber has been a longtime supporter of RIAS, giving guest talks and recruiting outstanding candidates for the RIAS exchange programs.
Also attending the awards ceremonies in Berlin’s Französicher Dom cathedral were journalists who have participated in RIAS programs — two three-week long exchange programs each year for German and American journalism students; four two-week long exchange programs for mid-career professional journalists from Germany and America each year; and one short/alumni one-week program each year for alumni participants.
