BOSTON – Five New England journalists, including the crusading anti-slavery editor William Lloyd Garrison, are the recipients of the 2006 Yankee Quill Award for their contributions to improving journalism in the region.

The award is presented annually by the Academy of New England Journalists through the auspices of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors and the New England Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. It is considered the highest individual honor awarded by fellow journalists in the region.

This year’s honorees include a special posthumous award to Garrison, a native of Newburyport, and editor of the Liberator, a weekly abolitionist newspaper in Boston. Garrison was considered the most impassioned voice in America for ending slavery and was invited by President Lincoln to help raise the nation’s flag again at Fort Sumter, S.C., at the close of the Civil War.

Other recipients include:

. David Offer, executive editor of Central Maine Newspapers in Augusta.

. Gary Lapierre, managing editor of WBZ Radio in Boston.

. Chris Powell, managing editor and vice president for news of the Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Conn.

. Walter Robinson, assistant managing editor/Spotlight Team, The Boston Globe.

They will receive the Yankee Quill award Nov. 16 at the 51st anniversary convention of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors at the Omni Parker House in Boston.

Offer will be recognized for a 41-year career that includes serving as the top editor at the Newport Daily News in Rhode Island and the Central Maine Newspapers’ Kennebec Journal in Augusta and Morning Sentinel in Waterville. He is also a former investigative reporter at the Hartford Courant, and played a key role in the development of the national Investigative Reporters and Editors organization.