[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 24, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E595-E596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO'S AMERICAN RADIOWORKS WINS TOP NATIONAL 
                            JOURNALISM AWARD

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BILL LUTHER

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 24, 2001

  Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Speaker, Minnesota Public Radio's American RadioWorks 
has won the 2001 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton Award 
for its hour-long documentary entitled ``Massacre at Cuska: Anatomy of 
a War Crime.'' The award is considered to be the nation's most 
prestigious in broadcast journalism.
  ``Massacre at Cuska'' investigated the events surrounding the May 14, 
1999 attack by Serbian death squads on an ethnic Albanian village 
called Cuska (pronounced CHOOSH-kuh) that, within a matter of hours, 
left forty-one unarmed civilians dead. The program presented, for the 
first time, detailed testimony from Serbian police, army and militia 
members alleging that Slobodan Milosevic's senior generals masterminded 
a campaign of murder and deportations against Kosovar Albanians. Six of 
the Serbs interviewed by American RadioWorks took part in the Cuska 
attack, including one man who admitted to executing a dozen unarmed 
Albanian men.
  The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia awards have spotlighted the nation's 
best in broadcast journalism since 1942. Past Gold Baton winners have 
included Bill Moyers and Public Affairs Television in 2000 for ``Facing 
the Truth'' on PBS, and 1999 winner NOVA, produced at WGBH-TV, Boston, 
for five programs (``Everest: The Death Zone,'' ``The Brain Eater,'' 
``Supersonic Spies,'' ``China's Mysterious Mummies,'' and ``Coma'') and 
for consistently outstanding science reporting. Batons are inscribed 
with the late Edward R. Murrow's famous observation on television: 
``This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, it can even 
inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined 
to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a 
box.''
  In presenting the 2001 Gold Baton to American RadioWorks Producers, 
Stephen Smith and Michael Montgomery, Columbia University's President 
George Rupp said, ``It is a measure of the times we live through that 
each year, at least one of these winning programs is about man's 
inhumanity to man. The duPont jury applauds this radio documentary for 
telling us about ghastly events in a now forgotten part of the world.'' 
Jurors, who reviewed over 600 submissions to choose just one Gold Baton 
recipient, commented, ``This program reaffirms the effectiveness of 
radio in presenting complicated issues in a compelling way.''
  ``Massacre at Cuska'' had already received well-deserved national 
recognition when, in December 2000, it was named as a finalist for the 
2000 International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) Award 
for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting and as a finalist 
in the category Enterprise Journalism: In Collaboration for the Online 
Journalism Awards (OJAs) presented by the Online News Association and 
Columbia University. That said, an award of the stature of the Alfred 
I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton bestowed upon such a small, 
public radio broadcasting entity like American RadioWorks is 
unprecedented.
  ``Massacre at Cuska'' originally aired in this country in February 
2000 on public radio stations nationwide, and later that year, a 
Serbian language version was broadcast in Yugoslavia on the independent 
B92 radio network. According to co-producer, Michael Montgomery, 
``Serbs had never heard a program so detailed and so blunt about the 
ethnic killings in Kosovo. As part of Serbia's new commitment to 
democracy, it's important that Serbs have access to independent 
accounts of the Kosovo violence. We hope the program will foster a 
public discussion in Serbia about war, accountability and 
reconciliation.''
  American RadioWorks is public radio's largest documentary production 
unit. It represents a collaboration that involves Minnesota Public 
Radio, National Public Radio and public radio stations across the 
country. Through investigative journalism, American RadioWorks is based 
in Minnesota, but its work, like mine, touches more than just 
Minnesotans. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate American RadioWorks on their 
notable achievement as the 2001 recipient of the Alfred I. duPont-
Columbia Gold

[[Page E596]]

Baton Award for overall excellence in broadcast journalism.

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