Anne Garrels

Anne Longworth Garrels (July 2, 1951 – September 7, 2022) was an American broadcast journalist who worked as a foreign correspondent for

In the mid-1970s, when she worked for ABC (including as producer), Garrels was one of the few women national broadcast journalists in the United States—eventually serving as ABC's Moscow Bureau Chief in the Soviet Union, until expelled for her detailed, unflattering reporting on the country and its issues. She became a war correspondent for ABC, covering Central American conflicts. She later became NBC's reporter at the U.S. State Department.

In 1988, Garrels began her 22-year career as a foreign correspondent for

Garrels was active in journalism-related organizations, and global affairs causes, and wrote two noted books—one about the Soviet Union, and one about the Iraq war and its aftermath, both recounting her own experiences, as well as providing detailed historical coverage of those places in that time.

Background and education

Anne Longworth Garrels was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on July 2, 1951, the daughter of Valerie (Smith) and John C. Garrels Jr.^[1] She spent part of her childhood in London, where her father worked as an executive for Monsanto.^[1] She was educated at St Catherine's School, Bramley.^[1]

Garrels returned to the United States and enrolled at Middlebury College, but later transferred to Harvard University's Radcliffe College, where she studied Russian and graduated in 1972.^[1][3][4]

Career

Early career

In 1975, Garrels worked for the ABC television network in several positions for ten years, including as producer—one of the few women broadcast journalists at the time.^[1][3][5][6]

She served ABC in the

As ABC's Central American bureau chief from 1984 to 1985, she covered the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador.[1]^[2][3]

Garrels was the

Shortly before the U.S. and its coalition invaded Iraq in 2003, Garrels traveled there. and was one of the sixteen Western journalists who remained in Baghdad, and reported live during the 2003 Iraq War^{[2][4][3][13]}—and for a while was the only American broadcast reporter still broadcasting from the middle of Baghdad.^[1][6][14] Garrels survived the April 8, 2003, U.S. tank attack on the Palestine Hotel, where she and hundreds of other journalists were living.^[15][16]

Following the April 8, 2003, U.S. bombing of the Al Jazeera office in Baghdad, which killed journalist Tareq Ayyoub ("Tariq/Tareq Ayoub"),^[15][17] Garrels reportedly said that Ayyoub should have known better than to be in his office during the invasion—a comment that raised angry responses from some in the international journalism community, who accused her of "blaming the victim."^[18]

Shortly after her return from Iraq, she published Naked in Baghdad (2003,

Garrels retired from NPR in 2010.[24]

Late career

Garrels continued her work with the Committee to Protect Journalists until the end of her life, serving on its board of directors.^[2][10][12]

In 2016, she published her second book, Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia, with

Toward the end of her life, Garrels served as a judge for the Overseas Press Club Awards, including the Lowell Thomas Award which she judged in 2021.[25]^[26]

After the

Garrels lived in Norfolk, Connecticut, where she died from lung cancer on September 7, 2022, aged 71.^[1][28]

Awards and recognition

• 1992
  NPR team receiving the award), for coverage of the Gulf War^[32]
• 1994 Citation for Excellence, Madeline Dane Ross Award ("for best correspondent[s] in any medium showing a concern for the human condition"),
  NPR work: Russia: The Human Cost of Reform.^[33]
• 1996–97, Edward R. Murrow Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations^[2]
• 1997 Silver Baton,
  NPR) for coverage of the former Soviet Union.^[34]
• 1998 Whitman Bassow Award, Overseas Press Club, with Loren Jenkins, for an NPR series on water issues around the globe.^[35][32]
• 2002 Alumnae Recognition Award, Radcliffe Association, Harvard University^[4]
• 2003
  George Polk Award for Radio Reporting for her coverage of the war in Iraq,^[1][10][36] "enduring bombings, blackouts, thirst and intimidation to report from the besieged Iraqi capital of Baghdad."^[37]
• 2003 Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation (
  IWMF).^[2][38][36]
• 2003 Fellowship, The Montgomery Fellows Program, Dartmouth College^[11]
• 2004
  NPR, specifically citing Garrels and 6 other NPR journalists), for coverage of the war in Iraq.^[39]
• 2004
  NPR – specifically citing Garrels (first) and 9 other NPR journalists, for coverage of the war in Iraq.^[40]
• 2004
  Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).^[41][36]
• 2004 Fellow, Society of Professional Journalists^[42]
• 2004 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri, (awarded in 2004, presented in 2009)^[36]
• 2006 Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University^[43]
• 2010 Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism, Los Angeles Press Club^[44]
• 2012 Inductee: "Writers & Journalists" category, Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame^[45]
• Inter-Action's Award for Excellence in International Reporting^[11]

Publications and programs

Books

• Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War as Seen by NPR's Correspondent, 2002, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (account of her 5 years as a radio correspondent in Iraq) (Excerpts at: Neiman Reports, Harvard University^[16])
• Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia, 2016, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (study of Russian public, during the era of Vladimir Putin, particularly in Chelyabinsk, Russia)^[46]

Films

• Journalist: Killed in the Line of Duty, - Co-narrator, with Christiane Amanpour, Tom Brokaw, Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather (director: Steven Rosenbaum; host: Anderson Cooper)^[47]

Television programs

• Science Journal, 25-part weekly news series on science, medicine and technology, 1988,
  PBS^[7][8]