Making a World Safe for Journalists

Harvard officials tapped one of the most respected names in American journalism to head the Nieman Foundation, reaffirming the organization's role as a safe haven for journalists facing political oppression.

William Kovach, who quit his job as editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after a highly-publicized battle with the paper's management, was named curator of the foundation on August 2, succeeding Howard Simons.

Simons, who was managing editor of The Washington Post during the Watergate scandal, died in June of pancreatic cancer.

Under his curatorship, the Nieman Foundation--which offers prominent journalists the chance to study at Harvard free from the pressures of deadlines--broadened its international focus, offering fellowships to writers from Latin America, China and South Africa.

"Howard's main thrust was to strengthen the international reach of the organization and the program, especially to Third World and developing countries," says Kovach. "And in the process of doing that, the natural evolution was the need to offer Harvard and the program as a refuge for journalists who got in trouble for speaking out."

"I take that behavior by Howie Simons as my motto," he says.

Another of Kovach's goals, he says, is to teach journalists how to use the variety of technological tools available to them in a responsible manner. When he first began working on newspapers, journalists wielded considerably less power--in part because of the inevitable delays in bringing news back to an audience.

Now, he said, "You hiccup in Beirut, and it's on the living room screen in Keokuk, Iowa. That fundamentally changes the audience for news."