October 23, 2026.
October 23, 2026.
I want to thank you all for this incredible honor. It means a lot.
I’m up here representing thousands of New York Times journalists who work heroically everyday, in particularly challenging conditions, in the United States and around the world. The Times has been run by the same family since the mid 1800s and our current publisher, A.G. Sulzerberger, the fifth-generation publisher of The Times, sends his greetings and his gratitude. Another member of the family who you know well, Michael Greenspon, senior vice president and general manager of international print and licensing for The Times, similarly wishes he could be here with all of you.
It is not lost on us that we’re in illustrious company receiving an award like this. The IAPA’s Grand Prize for Press Freedom dates back to 1954 and it has acknowledged journalistic luminaries from this part of the world. You’ve honored fallen Mexican journalists who gave their lives seeking the truth. You’ve honored persecuted journalists in Nicaragua and Cuba, Venezuelan journalists struggling against intense pressures to do their jobs, and journalists from this country bravely taking on drug cartels.
So while I’m proud of all that we’ve accomplished in the face of intense pressure, I’m standing here in awe of what all of you do every day in telling the stories of this region.
In the United States, more than 3500 newspapers have closed over the last two decades. We have a polarized public that can’t agree what is true and what is false. We face the disruptive arrival of AI, which is scooping up our content without paying a dime.
And of course, challenge No. 1 for us is the Trump administration’s unrelenting and often unconstitutional challenges to the free press, designed to punish news organizations and journalists who produce coverage the president doesn’t like.
These efforts have included restricting access to news media organizations, using the federal bureaucracy to intimidate broadcasters; raiding journalists’ homes; as well as lawsuits, subpoenas, personal attacks, insults and even accusations of treason.
In recent weeks, we saw the latest of these intimidation tactics when President Trump abruptly banned CNN, another network known as MS NOW and Politico, a politics site, from the White House. We promptly joined the fight for free and equal access to this White House, just as we led a legal challenge to the Pentagon’s efforts to restrict the access of correspondents covering the country’s military.
As daunting as these threats are, at The New York Times, we’re celebrating a big anniversary this year – our demi-semi-sept-centennial. That’s a real word and it means we’ve reached the ripe old age of 175. Our long history gives us some comfort in this moment. The Times has produced outstanding journalism under extreme political and commercial pressures before.
Going through our archives, you’ll find:
– An angry armed mob came toward our New York City headquarters during the American Civil War
Add to this list injuries from landmines, car bombs and helicopter crashes; jailings and detentions at the hands of repressive governments; near-constant attacks and harassment online; and any number of legal injunctions and lawsuits over the last 175 years.
So I work for a remarkably resilient institution.
Our reporters have real backbone and chase important stories, no matter the obstacles or challenges. Right now, we’re covering conflicts in Ukraine, Iran, Yemen, Sudan and Myanmar. We’re reporting on political change and economic challenges all over the globe. And at home, we’re covering legal abuses, corruption and governmental overreach, the potential promise and perils of A.I., threats to the integrity of elections, and the social and political divides in American life.
At a moment when people and organizations all around us are choosing sides or caving to pressure, we remain fiercely independent. We take a wide-angle look from multiple vantage points at the world’s important issues, follow the facts and share what we learn from open-minded reporting. We’re willing to complicate easy narratives, exonerate a villain or expose a hero. And we’re not afraid to admit that we don’t have all the answers.
We’re doing all this today while reaching more people with quality journalism than our predecessors could have imagined. To reach wider audiences in Asia we publish a site in Mandarin, and here in Latin America we circulate our journalism, sometimes in partnership with your publications, en espanol.
So we are firmly focused on the news cycle of today and the challenges of the future while never forgetting our past.
When you walk into the lobby of the New York Times – and you’re all invited, although probably not all at once – you’ll see old front pages going back to our very first edition of Sept. 18, 1851. We were called the New York Daily Times back then.
Off to the corner is a bust featuring our founder, Adolph Ochs, with his motto, which was featured in that first edition. The Times, he said, gives the news “impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved.”
Lofty words. But worth remembering – as we all work to make sure our newsrooms outlast us. And as we stand up for principles more powerful than any strongman we may face.
Thank you.
Marc Lacey | Managing Editor | The New York Times
