CNN, Newsman Fred Friendly Win DuPont-Columbia Awards

CNN’s coverage of the civil war in Bosnia and documentaries about Asia, presidential campaign finances and boxer Mike Tyson were among the winners Thursday of the annual Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for outstanding broadcast journalism.

The only individual honored in the ceremonies in New York was Columbia journalism professor emeritus Fred W. Friendly, a former TV producer and president of CBS News who was lauded as having served for five decades as a “catalyst and conscience for the highest standards of excellence and public service in all media.”

The 12 winning programs, which included national and local productions, included the PBS “Frontline” documentary “The Best Campaign Money Can Buy,” about the financing of the 1992 presidential campaign; the PBS series “The Pacific Century,” a 10-hour look by Jigsaw Productions Inc. at the rise of Asia’s political and economic power, and a segment of ABC’s “20/20” titled “The Gift of Life,” about an Army surgeon who saved the life of a soldier in Vietnam.

CNN was honored for its continuing coverage of the conflict in Bosnia by correspondents Christiane Amanpour, Jim Clancy, Brent Sadler and Jackie Shymanski. “Filled with the horror of war, their reporting is tough yet deeply human,” the judges said.

A documentary produced by Barbara Kopple and shown on NBC, “Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson,” was also a winner, cited by the judges as “comprehensive, sensitive and completely insightful.”

Other TV winners were MW Productions for “Harry Bridges: A Man and His Union”; WPLG-TV in Miami for “Armed Enemies of Castro”; Wisconsin Public Television for “Move Over: Women and the ’92 Campaign”; WBFF-TV in Baltimore and Deborah Weiner for “Justice on Trial: The Lost Generation,” “Finding the Lost Generation” and “The Walking Wounded”; KRON-TV in San Francisco for “In the Shadow of the Wall,” and WTVJ-TV in Miami for coverage of Hurricane Andrew.

The only radio winner was WBAI/Pacifica Radio for “Massacre: The Story of East Timor,” a half-hour documentary about the massacre of Timorese by Indonesian troops in 1991.

The awards covered the period between July 1, 1992, and last June 30.