Thread by @ICFJ

🌟The Tribute to Journalists has started! “What a year it has been…Through it all...courageous journalists play an essential role in keeping us informed,” says @CapehartJ, who graciously stepped in as emcee for Wolf Blitzer, who's covering the #midterms. #ICFJawards

.@Bellingcat and its director @ChristoGrozev win the ICFJ Innovation in International Reporting Award for their groundbreaking use of open-source data & technology to fight Russian disinformation and unveil war crimes in Ukraine. Join the #ICFJawards now:

“This award goes to citizen journalists around the world, who, together with us, reinvented crowdsourced open-source and data journalism. Only together with all of you, we are @Bellingcat,” says @ChristoGrozev in a speech honoring his team and citizen journalists. #ICFJawards

We hope you will be as inspired as we are by the brave journalists we’re honoring at the #ICFJawards. Help us support them: Bid on a portrait of your choosing by @LizaDonnelly or a @NatGeo photo before we give out the final award of the night! Bid here: go.icfj.org/bid

Disinformation has become the story of our time, says ICFJ President @smoshavi, highlighting the role journalists play in fighting lies. Disinformation is “eroding trust in facts. It’s fueling conflict and war… It’s having, all too often, fatal results.” #ICFJawards

ICFJ is providing the resources & support journalists need to fight against the assault on truth, says @smoshavi. “Our motto is ‘It Takes a Journalist.’ The reporters, editors & news entrepreneurs in our global network do life-changing work… they need your support." #ICFJawards

“Your support means that we can fight against authoritarian censorship, combat the growing scourge of disinformation, inform our audiences about life-and-death issues & so much more. From all of us, thank you for your support,” says ICFJ network member @phillipWGBH. #ICFJawards

A huge thank you to our Leadership sponsors — @Meta, Ahmed Charai, World Herald Tribune, Inc. and @NBCNewsPR. Your support is crucial to our work with journalists around the world. Join the #ICFJawards now:

"Guatemalan publisher José Rubén Zamora was jailed in Guatemala earlier this year... We call on the Guatemalan government to release him and drop all charges," says @knightfdn President @ibarguen. #NoNosCallan #ICFJawards

Introducing @CarlosDada, our 2022 @ICFJKnight Trailblazer Award winner! Dada co-founded @_elfaro_ to create independent news bypassing government censorship that exposes injustice and corruption in El Salvador. Watch our tribute to Dada now: #ICFJawards

“Today, Central American journalists face the most difficult times since the end of our civil wars & military regimes. Hundreds of colleagues have flown into exile, dozens have been imprisoned. Journalism has been criminalized,” says @CarlosDada, accepting his award. #ICFJawards

We are grateful to our President’s Circle sponsors — The Ewing Family, The Pamela Howard Family Foundation, Wendell & Mary Reilly, @binance, @BloombergDotOrg, @EdelmanPR, @GoogleNewsInit and @KnightFdn — for making our work possible! Tune in: #ICFJawards

Congrats to @ICFJKnight Award winner @AnisaShaheed1! Shaheed is one of few Afghan women journalists to have covered everything from assaults against women to human rights violations, even continuing to report after fleeing Afghanistan. Join: #ICFJawards

"I dedicate this award to all of the fallen journalists who gave their lives for Afghanistan... Female journalists are not allowed to attend press conferences... Almost 200 journalists have been arrested and tortured since the takeover," says @AnisaShaheed1. #ICFJawards

A big thanks to our Gold sponsors: Lauretta J. Bruno, David Elliot Cohen & Laureen Seeger, Michael & Anne B. Golden, @AP, @CNN and @nytimes. Your support helps journalists in ICFJ’s global network to produce vital reporting that empowers citizens and improves lives. #ICFJawards

Our next @ICFJKnight Award of the night goes to Ukrainian reporters @mstyslav9, @EMaloletka & @VasilisaUKR. They spent three weeks documenting the horrific truth of the siege of Mariupol. Tune in for their acceptance speech: #ICFJawards

"During our 20 days in Mariupol, we witnessed war crimes, air strikes and atrocities against civilians committed by the Russian forces. It was important for us to show to the country & to the world what's really happening," says @EMaloletka, accepting the award. #ICFJawards

The journalists in our network could not produce the groundbreaking investigations they do without your support. You can help back them by donating here: go.icfj.org/donate. Thank you for supporting this vital work. #ICFJawards

Thank you to @DowJones @newscorp for sponsoring this year’s cocktail reception. Your support helps us equip thousands of journalists a year with the tools, resources and skills they need to thrive. #ICFJawards

Our final award of the night goes to @NBCNews' @MitchellReports, winner of our 2022 ICFJ Founders Award for Excellence in Journalism. Mitchell has been covering some of the world’s most important stories for half a century. Watch her speech: #ICFJawards

“We need great journalism now more than at any time I can recall — and historians would say, in our country, more than at any time since the civil war. Never before has our system been challenged as it has been in the last year," says @MitchellReports. #ICFJawards

All of us at ICFJ wish to thank the presenters of tonight’s #ICFJawards: @annekornblut, @ibarguen, @kwelkernbc, @Matthew_Winkler and Robert Thomson. And a huge thank you to @CapehartJ for being a fantastic master of ceremonies!

"Thank you to those...watching us virtually. We want to single out just a few of you,” says @smoshavi. @MadyCam76230202, @Ahmedelsheikh_, @CleyMedeiros,@muk_ankita & @KharlaPimentel – “you and all of the journalists you represent are the reason we all are here.” #ICFJawards

💫 That’s a wrap! Thank you to all of you who tuned in online & everyone who attended in Washington, DC. We appreciate your support of our winners & of our work! And if you missed the #ICFJawards, stay tuned for highlights tomorrow in our newsletter: icfj.org/icfj-newsletter