Religion Reporting Awards Announced
Yonat Shimron and Fran Arrington are this year's recipients of the Duke Divinity School-sponsored awards
Friday, January 24, 2003
DURHAM, N.C. -- Yonat Shimron of The News & Observer in Raleigh and Fran Arrington of the Bertie Ledger-Advance have been named winners of the annual Duke Divinity School Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting.
The awards, one each for daily newspapers and community newspapers, were given in conjunction with the North Carolina Press Association's 2002 News, Editorial and Photojournalism Contest.
The Duke awards honor "outstanding coverage of issues of religion, faith and/or spirituality and the clarity of explanation to a secular audience through editorials, news or feature articles, photos or cartoons." Judging was by news professionals outside of North Carolina.
The judges praised Shimron's "eye for important trends and an ear for bringing diverse voices to life."
Of Arrington's entry, the judges wrote, "it is rare to find a community newspaper -- with a writer like Fran Arrington -- which does such a good job of chronicling [religious] events in the life of an entire county."
Divinity School Dean L. Gregory Jones said, "We value intelligent and perceptive reporting on religion by the news media." Gallup polls regularly indicate that some 85 percent of Americans view religion as important to their lives.