This award is given to a journalist who has distinguished himself or herself during the year for the courage and the professionalism expressed in their work. This was the incentive behind the creation of the “VNY Media Award Liberty Meets Beauty.” The award celebrates freedom of the press as an expression of beauty because the seriousness and the virtue of a difficult profession like that of a journalist, needs to be recognized and, above all, celebrated, now more than ever. Olivia Nuzzi will be the first journalist to be given the first edition prize on Wednesday, April 25th, at the Italian Trade Commission of New York. Olivia is a journalist who has demonstrated herself to be a strong-willed and courageous asset of the “Fourth Estate.” In fact, in the last year, Olivia has been on four covers of the prestigious New York Magazine for which she is the White House correspondent.
Olivia Nuzzi, born in New York 25 years ago to Kelly and John Nuzzi, grew up in New Jersey. Olivia’s father was born in Brooklyn to an Italian family and, in her work as journalist of New York Magazine, we find many of the characteristics of which Italian Americans are proud — characteristics of people who are not afraid of hard and risky work if, in the end, it is well-done, gratifying, and done to the best of their ability. From her first articles when she was still a student, she seemed to be a natural born investigative journalist regarding the “powers that be.” What was confirmed in the era of the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate scandal, and is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, is that journalists should never fear power or be intimidated by it. On the contrary, those who have been democratically elected to power can do their best only if they feel the watch dog at their heels — with reporters ready to denounce weaknesses, mistakes, and even crime, without any possibility of their work as a journalist being threatened. Olivia Nuzzi, after a brilliant tenure at the Daily Beast— where she demonstrated her talent during the 2015-2016 political campaign — found in the prestigious and distinguished New York Magazine a platform where she could bring the beauty of liberty into the light.
“Liberty Meets Beauty” is our newspaper’s mission– to be the meeting point of two extraordinary virtues expressed by two extraordinary cultures: in the United States, and more specifically, New York, the freedom of thought and expression, which is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and that of the beauty of Italian and Mediterranean tradition. The virtue of doing good as a symbol of beauty, the strength of “beauty” in Olivia Nuzzi’s work, above all for the courageous, passionate, and continuous search for the truth, is why La Voce di New York is awarding this first edition VNY Media Award. Donald Trump’s White House, and that of future presidents, men or women, just as any representative of Congress, will be better able to serve this great country as long as their job and their conduct is constantly monitored by reporters like Olivia Nuzzi.
This award also represents a goal for our newspaper which has for five years battled for the liberty to recount the truth, even if at times inconvenient, with a journalistic vision and an innovative spirit typically American, and in particular, of New York. We are a newspaper which covers Italy but is not Italian. We are an American newspaper for all of the Italians in the world who recognize the need for a fresh, international, distinguished, and independent approach to news. In this sense, the correspondence from New York, from the United Nations and increasingly from around the world, provided that it is independent, is an element that renders the newspaper the most international with respect to Italian newspapers. It is aimed towards all of those who love Italy, no matter where they live.
It is exactly this type of prestige, recognized both by the number of readers and by the commendations on the part of Italian entities and institutions present in New York that prompted La Voce di New York to create an annual event. It is an occasion to gather with those who, during the year, have contributed with their journalistic work to disseminate the values of liberty and independence in our newspaper.
The prize’s logo represents two wings: liberty and beauty which fly together just like the two souls of this newspaper. But Antonio Giambanco and Emilio Pursumal, in the study and creation of this symbol, wanted to offer two other possible interpretations: the hard-working and artistic hands of those who create beauty, and the attentive and vigilant gaze of those who protect liberty.
Translation by Emmelina De Feo
