2022 MEDIA AWARDS HONOREE | BROADCAST JOURNALISM
FROM ABC FELLOW TO CHIEF CORRESPONDENT
As Chief Correspondent for PBS NewsHour, Amna Nawaz is dedicated to amplifying the voice of the voiceless and is a role model for many, particularly young Muslim women.
As the first Asian American and Muslim to moderate a United States presidential debate, Amna is a pioneer in elevating the voice of America’s fastest-growing population. Her passion lies in telling stories about the most vulnerable populations, including women, children, immigrants, and refugees.
Amna’s brush with journalism was initially planned to be short, as she was offered a 1-year fellowship in ABC News’ Washington office in between her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania and a prospective law degree. However, her journalism career aspirations were solidified on September 11th, 2001, when the world watched the horrific terror attacks on live television. On that day, she was tasked with sitting in front of a bay of TV screens to take notes of the horrible events of the day as they unfolded. It was on that fateful day that it all “clicked” for her, and she felt that a career that would allow her to bring honest news and stories to the world would be “public service.”
She formerly served as a foreign correspondent at NBC News, reporting from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Turkey. Nawaz has interviewed international leaders and lawmakers. She was NBC’s Islamabad Bureau Chief and Correspondent for several years and was the first foreign journalist allowed inside North Waziristan, the then-global hub of Al Qaida and the Taliban. She covered the Taliban attack on Malala Yousafzai, the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, and broke news in a series of exclusive reports on the impact of U.S. drone strikes.
A career in the broadcast space is difficult for anyone, no less a Muslim woman during the aftermath of 9/11, but Amna achieved the impossible and has since become a staple of American broadcast news. She has since gone on to become to win an Emmy Award and Peabody Award, among many other accolades for her investigative work.
TELLING better and more accurate STORIES
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Presenting the Award
“There weren’t a lot of Muslims in the news business then—there still aren’t. And I saw how important it was for someone like me to be in the room, and to be part of the conversation and to have my voice be heard so that the stories could be better and more accurately told.”
