Kurt Schork (1947 – May 24, 2000) was an American reporter and war correspondent. He was killed in an ambush while on an assignment for Reuters in Sierra Leone together with cameraman Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora of Spain, who worked for Associated Press Television. Two other Reuters journalists, South African cameraman Mark Chisholm and Greek photographer Yannis Behrakis, were injured in the attack.
Kurt Schork was born in Washington, D.C., on January 24, 1947, graduated from Jamestown College in 1969, and studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar later that year—the same time as future US president Bill Clinton. He worked as a property developer, a political adviser and as chief of staff for the New York Mass Transit Authority, before becoming a journalist.
Kurt Schork covered numerous conflicts and wars, including in the Balkans, Iraq, Chechnya, Iraqi Kurdistan, Sri Lanka, and East Timor.
He filed the story Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo, about a couple killed during the Siege of Sarajevo.
Mr. Schork has been memorialized posthumously in the dedication of Kurt Schork Street in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the dedication of the Kurt Schork newsroom at Jamestown College, his alma mater.
The goal of the Kurt Schork Memorial Awards is to recognize and assist freelance and local journalists who make such a critical contribution to international understanding but whose work is often overlooked. The Awards include two cash prizes of $5,000 each to provide some financial support to help the winners continue reporting. Though local journalists in the developing world take extraordinary risks to expose corruption and injustice in their countries, they rarely earn enough money to support themselves and their families. Similarly, freelancers live from job to job, never knowing when the next assignment will come, where it may lead or how long it will last. With these awards, the Fund spotlights the plight and achievements of both.