San Antonio, USA - The Religion Newswriters Association has named Sandi Dolbee of The San Diego Union-Tribune as the 2007 Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year.
Eric Gorski was named Supple Religion Writer of the Year for his work with The Denver Post, in a Sept. 29 awards ceremony at the RNA annual meeting in Texas. Gorski is now a national religion writer with The Associated Press.
The Religion Newswriters Association is a nonprofit created in 1949 to advance professional standards of religion writing in the secular press and create a support network for religion reporters. It currently has 570 members and subscribers.
Among the other awards presented:
_ David O'Reilly of the Philadelphia Inquirer won the Templeton Story of the Year prize for a three-part series on the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.
_ Larissa Theodore-Dudkiewicz of the Beaver County (Pa.) Times received the Cassels Religion Reporter of the Year honor for newspapers with circulation of 50,000 or less.
_ G. Jeffrey McDonald of The Christian Science Monitor received the Cornell Award for top religion writing at a mid-sized newspaper.
_ The Mobile Press Register and The Salt Lake Tribune won awards for their religion sections.
_ Tina Shah of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism was named best student religion reporter
_ Maria Arita of CBS II in Dallas/Fort Worth won for her TV segment "Orbs of Light," and the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer was honored for a segment reflecting on the Sept. 11 attacks.
_ Rachael Martin of National Public Radio was honored for a report on Latina women converting to Islam.