The AP, NPR, CNN among winners of RCC’s annual Wilbur AwardsReligion Communicators Council honors 22 for work during 2015 Casey Tom, president of the national Religion Communicators Council, presented the special Wilbur Award to the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell. Photo by George Conklin. NEW YORK — Honoring excellence in communicating religious issues, values and themes in 2015, the Religion Communicators Council handed out 22 Wilbur Awards to individuals in the secular media April 2 in areas of print and online journalism, book publishing, broadcasting and motion pictures. Winners included representatives from Own: The Oprah Winfrey Network, The Associated Press, CBS News, National Public Radio, Vanity Fair, CNN and The Atlantic, to name a few. Accepting Didi Tang’s Wilbur for her report on “China’s Crackdown on Crosses” was her colleague from The Associated Press, Rachel Zoll. Zoll read a statement from Tang, who was born in China and has reported for AP for 12 years. In it, Tang wrote about the importance of the story and the danger it brought on many people who spoke with her for the report. Many of the courageous people that spoke with her and stood up against the government have been jailed in the wake of the report, she wrote. In accepting the Wilbur for radio series, Hansi Lo Wang of the New York Bureau of National Public Radio said that the NPR series on Pope Francis was right in organization’s wheelhouse. “We try to explore how people are living out in the world,” he said. He continued, saying that the series showed how “the Pope has brought people together across viewpoints.” The Religion Communicators Council has presented Wilbur Awards annually since 1949. Secular communicators enter work in eight categories. Juries of media professionals, coordinated by council members across the country, evaluate submissions on content, creativity, impact and excellence in communicating religious values. The award is named for the late Marvin C. Wilbur, a pioneer in religious public relations, longtime council leader and former Presbyterian Church executive. Dr. Andrew (Andy) Rawls has produced the Wilbur program for 26 years. In accepting her Wilbur for a series of articles Betsy Hiel, the Middle East correspondent for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, said covering religious issues in the media is vitally important. “As I live in the Middle East issues of religion are being debated in coffee houses and on many of the battlefields today and it can’t be overlooked,” she said. From time to time the Council's board of governors confers a special Wilbur Award. It recognizes a person or organization whose body of work makes a substantial and unique contribution to public discourse on religious faith and values or interfaith dialogue and understanding. Past recipients of special Wilbur Awards include Bob Abernethy of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly; John P. Blessington of CBS-TV’s Religion and Culture series; President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter; John Dart, former religion editor of the Los Angeles Times; Martin Marty of The Christian Century; Bill Moyers of Bill Moyers Journal; Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts; and filmmaker Ken Wales. The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, the first woman minister to head the National Council of Churches and first woman Director of Religion at the historic Chautauqua Institution received a special award this year from the Religion Communicators Council. The honor recognizes Campbell’s over 30 years of public and behind the scenes work in all forms of media. She was spokesperson for the National Council of Churches on national and international issues for nearly a decade. Rev. Campbell is a devoted activist for peace and social justice, believing that citizens in a democracy must act on their conscience. This commitment was crafted during her life changing work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and was deepened in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. Archbishop Desmond Tutu referred to her as “a woman of courage and compassion” pointing out that Rev. Campbell was the only woman in the clergy procession of over 200 for his enthronement as Archbishop of South Africa. 2016 Wilbur Award winners (for work produced during 2015):Newspaper Articles: National or Top 15 Metro Markets
Newspaper Articles: All Other Markets
Newspaper Articles: Commentary, Blog, or Column
Magazine Articles: National or Top 15 Metro Markets
Magazine Articles: All Other Markets
Magazine Articles: Commentary, Blog, or Column
Books: Non-Fiction
Feature Films: Documentary (30 minutes or longer)
Digital Communications: Faith-Based Blogs
Digital Communications: Online News Stories
Digital Communications: Multimedia
Television & Cable: Network News or National Syndication (up to 8 minutes)
Television & Cable: Network News or National Syndication (8 minutes or longer)
Television & Cable: Public Broadcasting (up to 8 minutes)
Television & Cable: Public Broadcasting (8 minutes or longer)
Television & Cable: News – Local
Television & Cable: Documentary (up to 30 minutes)
Television & Cable: Documentary (30 minutes or longer)
Television & Cable: Made-for-TV Movie
Television & Cable: Interview
Radio or Podcasts: Single Program
Radio or Podcasts: Series of Programs (2 or more)
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