Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights will announce the winners of its 2022 Book and Journalism Awards on Tuesday, May 24. Harry Benson, Dan Blackburn, Doug Brinkley, John Harwood, Rory Kennedy, Michael Lewis, Jane Mayer, Ari Melber, Craig Melvin, Soledad O'Brien and John Seigenthaler are just some of the distinguished special presenters who will be announcing this year’s honorees in the live virtual ceremony that begins at 4 pm ET. Event registration is available here.
Winners of the 2022 RFK Journalism Awards were selected from over 350 global submissions to the more than 15 print, photo, broadcast, and new media categories, all of which encapsulated some of the most exemplary reporting from the past 12 months. The RFK Book Award honors authors whose writing focuses on social justice issues of concern to Robert Kennedy.
“The entries this year underscored a press continually under siege, both at home and abroad,” said Kerry Kennedy, President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “At Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, we honor, celebrate, and work to protect that bravery every day. These annual awards are a way of thanking the press and showing them that we notice their crucial contributions to ensuring we all have unfiltered access to the critical facts and information vital for idea exchange and accountability.”
Launched in 1969 by the journalists who covered Kennedy’s presidential campaign, the prestigious RFK Journalism Awards celebrates media professionals whose work explores issues of human rights, social justice, and the power of individual action. The Book Award was founded in 1980 with the proceeds from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s bestselling book, Robert F. Kennedy and His Times.
Historian and author Michael Beschloss is the head of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award committee, and Margaret Engel, director of the Alicia Patterson Journalism Foundation, serves as chair of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards committee, and they were joined by more than 50 volunteer judges this year. The 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book and Journalism Awards ceremony is made possible this year thanks to the generous support of Mortimer B. Zuckerman Family Foundation.