ABC7 sports anchor Rob Fukuzaki and civil rights attorney Carol Sobel will be among those honored Sunday evening during the Los Angeles Press Club’s 68th Southern California Journalism Awards Gala in downtown Los Angeles.
Fukuzaki, the longtime weekday sports anchor for “ABC7 Eyewitness News,” will receive the Joseph M. Quinn Lifetime Achievement Award at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. He joined the station in 1994, becoming the first Japanese American male television news anchor in the Los Angeles market.
In addition to his broadcasting career, Fukuzaki founded the Heads Up Youth Foundation in 1996. The nonprofit provides scholarships and educational assistance to disadvantaged students and foster youth in Southern California, according to organizers.
Sobel will receive the Guardian Award for Contributions to Press Freedom. She spent 20 years with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California before opening her own law practice in 1997. She has represented journalists and media organizations in First Amendment cases for decades. Sobel currently represents the Los Angeles Press Club in litigation alleging First Amendment violations, organizers said.
Veteran television journalist Craig Melvin — co-host of NBC’s “Today” who also anchors “Dateline” and serves as a fill-in anchor for “NBC Nightly News” — will receive the President’s Award for Impact on Media.
Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa will receive the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism, named for the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
About 550 journalists, editors, broadcasters and media executives are expected to attend the annual gala.
Founded more than a century ago, the Los Angeles Press Club represents journalists working in print, broadcast and digital media. Proceeds from the gala support scholarships, mentoring programs, educational initiatives and grants for investigative journalism.