The world is changing, and so is journalism and the way people everywhere get their news. ICFJ’s 2026 Awards Dinner celebrated journalism in all its forms: a drone photojournalist whose aerial photos expose inequities, a cross-border news outlet that doubles as a call center informing people of their rights, a war correspondent and a video journalist who uses animation and maps to explain global issues.
Hundreds of people gathered in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10 to honor that breadth. What they share is courage and innovation in service of the public, and that matters more than ever at a time of great change in Washington and the world. To all who joined us and supported our work, we are deeply grateful.
Here are the evening’s highlights:
José J. Nieves, the exiled editor-in-chief of elTOQUE, one of Cuba’s most respected and most persecuted news outlets, won the Knight International Journalism Award. His team develops digital information tools to report news the government wants hidden, such as Cuba’s true exchange rates. He also works on the very hard problem of keeping his own and other exiled media financially viable.
Read more and watch his tribute video.
Zeinab Mohammed Salih, a Sudanese freelance journalist who covers her country’s underreported war for major international media, also won the Knight International Journalism Award. She couldn’t get a visa in time to attend, so she recorded her remarks.
Read more.
Patricia Mercado Sánchez of Mexico, founder and CEO of Conexión Migrante, received the ICFJ News Innovation Award. Her Spanish-language outlet gives immigrants to the United States information they urgently need as the rules keep changing. Her team also created a direct-response support center that has guided more than 100,000 migrants and families.
Read more.
Johnny and Iz Harris, founders of Newpress, a pioneering video news collective, received the ICFJ Founders Award. It’s the first time the award has gone to a creator-led news company. Newpress reaches an audience of 15 million with rigorous visual journalism in the formats people increasingly use today.
Read more and watch a video about Newpress.
For the first time, the dinner had two co-hosts: Ayesha Rascoe, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday and Up First, and Dave Jorgenson, co-founder of Local News International and former “Washington Post TikTok Guy.” We're very grateful to them for leading the evening.
The dinner also highlighted Plus, the international alliance ICFJ created with Code for Africa and India-based Proto. Both were founded by longtime ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellows. The European Journalism Centre joined this year, so Plus now has homes on four continents.