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Detroit Free Press Editor Peter Bhatia Wins Editor of the Year Award

December 23, 2020, 4:00 PM by  Allan Lengel

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Peter Bhatia

Peter Bhatia has been named the 2020 Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award from the National Press Foundation in Washington, D.C.

"Bhatia led the Detroit Free Press in superb coverage of the tumultuous events of 2020 and has been a longstanding and committed advocate for diversity, both in the newsroom and in the practice of community journalism," a National Press Foundation announcement says. 

The award is named after the late Ben Bradlee, the legendary editor of the Washington Post, who oversaw the paper's Watergate coverage that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. Bradlee died in 2014 at age 93. 

Bhatia joined the Freep in September 2017 after two years as editor and vice president of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Bhatia previously was director of the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State's Cronkite School of Journalism. Before that, he was editor of The Oregonian in Portland. 

“Every one of us needs to make sure we are hearing the diverse voices of the communities we serve – and that is reflected in our investigative and enterprise reporting and in our stories of everyday people doing extraordinary things,” Bhatia wrote in a note to staff after the murder of George Floyd. “Hold me and the newsroom leadership accountable for making tangible progress on these fronts. It has always mattered and never more so than now.”

Freep reporter M.L. Elrick says Bhatia has made good on his word. "Peter Bhatia made a commitment to diversify the newsroom and unlike almost every other editor who makes that promise, he's actually making it happen. He's keeping his promise."

The National Press Foundation established the Editor of the Year Award in 1984 to recognize significant achievements that promote quality journalism. 

The judges were Tom Rosenstiel of the American Press Institute; Sandy Sugawara, former deputy director of the Voice of America; and Robyn Tomlin, president and editor of the News & Observer and Herald Sun in Raleigh and Durham, N.C.



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