BRAMA, Oct 29, 2003, 9:00 am ET
Press Release
UCCA campaign to revoke Duranty's Pulitzer Prize continues
New York, NY (UCCA) -- The UCCA yearlong campaign to strip Walter Duranty of his undeserved Pulitzer Prize has now expanded to include targeting the Chairman and Publisher of The New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. by conducting a mass email drive designed to persuade The New York Times to disavow the tarnished 1932 Pulitzer Prize. We urgently call on our community to join this campaign by logging on to the UCCA's website at www.ucca.org and emailing Mr. Sulzberger, Jr. Additionally, the UCCA recommends that the community continue to email the Pulitzer Committee from the UCCA website, inasmuch as the decision on whether to revoke Duranty's Pulitzer Prize is expected in mid-November
The campaign to revoke Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer Prize, timed to coincide with the 70th Anniversary of the Holodomor, the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide, is a component of a wide-ranging UCCA effort to counter continuing Holodomor-deniers, and was launched at the UCCA's Executive Board meeting in January 2003. In early February, the UCCA initiated a community-wide letter writing drive to the Pulitzer Prize Committee urging them to revoke Duranty's prize. In addition to the UCCA Executive Board's Communiqueacute;, hundreds of letters were sent from members of our community. The UCCA's Kyiv Bureau solicited letters from various influential Ukrainian citizens. Letters were sent to the Pulitzer Board from MP Hennadiy Udovenko, 52nd President of the UN General Assembly; MP Pavlo Movchan, Chairman of "Prosvita" Society; Professor Volodymyr Serhiychuk, Director of the Ukrainian Studies Center at the Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University; the late Oleskandr Kryvenko, Director of the UPJC "Without Prejudices"; and Ihor Lubchenko, Chairman of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.
The UCCA's campaign was augmented by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association proposal to launch a worldwide postcard campaign in April 2003 directed to Mr Sig Gissler, Administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. The UCCA welcomed and co-sponsored the UCCLA initiative, thus ensuring that the Pulitzer Prize Committee received thousands of cards postmarked May Day (May 1, 2003) from around the world urging the Committee to posthumously revoke Walter Duranty's prize.
In addition to the Duranty campaign, the UCCA offensive against the continued atmosphere of Holodomor-denial includes constructive cooperation with the media and academia resulting in positive press and educational exposure of the Holodomor issue, as well as initiating and co-sponsoring a range of events, such as the upcoming Famine Remembrance Week, November 10-15, 2003. Conferences, Exhibits, Memorial Concerts, Film Screenings, Solemn Marches and Requiem Services will be part of the observances.
To learn more about the Duranty issue or Holodomor Observances, and to email The New York Times or the Pulitzer Committee, please log onto www.ucca.org
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