RTDNF To Honor The Late Bob Simon

The Radio Television Digital News Foundation will honor the late CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon with its Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th Annual First Amendment Awards ceremony in Washington on March 11.

“Bob Simon was the consummate foreign correspondent,” said RTDNF Chairman Chris Carl. “His tenacity and courage drove him to tell some of the most important stories of our time.”

Simon was one of the most honored journalists at CBS, with a career at the network spanning nearly 50 years. A Fulbright Scholar who worked in the American Foreign Service, he started with the network in 1967 and covered the war in Vietnam, the Yom Kippur War, conflicts in in Portugal and Cyprus, and was in South Africa on the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

He was CBS News Chief Middle East Correspondent when the first Gulf War began in 1991. It was in the opening days of that war when he and his crew were captured and imprisoned by Iraqi forces, which he detailed in his book Forty Days.

He joined 60 Minutes II and later 60 Minutes as a correspondent, specializing in foreign affairs reporting. He won what is believed to be a record 27 Emmy Awards for field reporting, four Overseas Press Club Awards, three Peabody awards, and CBS won multiple RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Awards during his tenure, including the Overall Excellence Award in 1996, which many attribute to his work covering the war in Sarajevo.

Chuck Todd of NBC News will serve as master of ceremonies for the event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which will also honor The New York Times‘ James Risen, ABC’s Ann Compton, Nexstar’s Perry Sook, Wiley Rein’s Kathy Kirby and journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, for their work to champion the principles of the First Amendment. Details about the RTDNF First Amendment Awards can be found here.