Times correspondent accepts Lovejoy award

WATERVILLE – John F. Burns, a New York Times foreign correspondent and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, was honored Sunday night at Colby College as the 55th recipient of its Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award.

Colby President William Adams called Burns the “chief foreign correspondent” of his era. In accepting the hooded headgear that accompanies the award, Burns joked that it was meant to cover his bushy hair.

Named for the Colby graduate murdered in 1837 while defending his press against a pro-slavery mob in Illinois, the Lovejoy award is given annually in recognition of courageous newspaper journalism.

In addressing a convocation, Burns said Lovejoy changed history and set an unrivaled standard for journalistic courage, conscience and commitment. Burns said he felt a bit like an imposter in receiving the award and was daunted by the names of the men and women who preceded him as Lovejoy fellows.

Burns won his Pulitzers in 1993 for coverage of the war in Bosnia and in 1997 for his reporting on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

He was arrested in China and Mozambique for his reporting and was forced to hide from Saddam Hussein’s secret police after escaping arrest in Iraq.