Hollywood Foreign Press Association Awards $2 Million for Journalism

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced grants totaling $2 million in support of investigative journalism and better protection for journalists around the world.

Announced during the Golden Globes Awards ceremony on Sunday, grants of $1 million each were awarded to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists. A Pulitzer Prize-winning global network of more than two hundred investigative journalists in seventy countries, ICIJ will use its grant to purchase a permanent headquarters for core staff in Washington, D.C. CPJ, which works to promote press freedom and protect the rights of journalists around the globe, will use its grant to strengthen its international network and build out its donor program.

"There's never been a more important time to safeguard the truth by supporting investigative journalism," said ICIJ director Gerard Ryle. "We are extremely grateful to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its great expression of support for the ICIJ and for the important work being done by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Truth is under attack, both politically and economically, and the brutal reality of recent years is that journalists routinely risk their lives just for doing their jobs, even in countries once thought safe."

"Journalists are under tremendous pressure these days, and around the world a record number are in prison for doing their job," said CPJ executive director Joel Simon. "The best journalism exposes wrongdoing and demands accountability. We must stand together as professionals and as part of a global community to defend the rights of journalists who confront the powerful, wherever they may be."

(Photo credit: Hollywood Foreign Press Association)