HFPA Announces $2M In Grants During 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards

Tonight, during the 75th Golden Globe Awards, Hollywood's Party of the YearTM, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced $2 million in grants to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Committee To Protect Journalists - $1 million to each organization. This is the first time a donation announcement has been made during the live telecast.

"We HFPA journalists are committed to supporting humanitarian organizations, film restoration, and film education," remarked Meher Tatna, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. "To date, we have granted over $30 million to those causes. And being an association of journalists, we are keenly aware of its importance, especially today."

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning global network of more than 200 investigative journalists in 70 countries who have collaborated on 27 unprecedented international in-depth investigative stories. According to ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle, the $1 million grant will be used to purchase an official headquarters for its core staff in Washington, D.C.

"There's never been a more important time to safeguard the truth by supporting investigative journalism," said Ryle. "We are extremely grateful to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its great expression of support for the ICIJ and for the important work being done by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Truth is under attack, both politically and economically, and the brutal reality of recent years is that journalists routinely risk their lives just for doing their jobs, even in countries once thought safe."

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. Throughout CPJ's 36-year history, it has advocated directly with U.S. authorities, urging them to support the rights of journalists around the world. The $1 million grant will be used to strengthen their international network of correspondents who advance their mission of promoting global press freedom and to create additional developmental roles to further build out a donor program.

"We are grateful to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, its board, and its president Meher Tatna for their recognition and generosity. Journalists are under tremendous pressure these days, and around the world a record number are in prison for doing their job. The best journalism exposes wrongdoing and demands accountability. We must stand together as professionals and as part of a global community to defend the rights of journalists who confront the powerful, wherever they may be," said Joel Simon, executive director, Committee to Protect Journalists.

For more than 25 years, the HFPA has been using the funds garnered through Golden Globe licensing fees to donate nearly $30 million in grants to deserving nonprofit organizations and institutions, provide more than 1,500 scholarships to underrepresented students, and restore over 90 films in partnership with the Film Foundation. In August, the HFPA distributed $3 million in grants to over 50 nonprofits and institutions that are empowering the next generation of filmmakers and storytellers and providing opportunities for underrepresented individuals in the entertainment industry at the Annual Grants Banquet.

For more information about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charlitable Trust, please visit www.goldenglobes.com/hfpa. For more information about the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, please visit https://cpj.org or www.icij.org.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) was founded in 1943 as the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association (HFCA) by a group of entertainment journalists representing world media in Hollywood, who realized the need to unite and organize to gain the recognition and access to studios and talent accorded to the domestic press. All qualified journalists were accepted, with the bold goal of "Unity Without Discrimination of Religion or Race." A year later, the HFCA created the GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS which, to this day, the entire membership selects, votes on and awards every year for outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television. This year, the HFPA will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Globe Awards. Members of the HFPA represent 56 countries with a combined readership of 250 million in some of the world's most respected publications. Each year, the organization holds the third most watched awards show on television, the Golden Globe Awards, which has enabled the organization to donate $30 million to entertainment-related charities, scholarship programs and humanitarian efforts over the last 25 years. Last year, the HFPA distributed $3 million in grants through their Charitable Trust to a diverse group of organizations and institutions within the entertainment industry. For more information, please visit www.GoldenGlobes.com and follow us on Twitter (@GoldenGlobes), Instagram (@GoldenGlobes), and Facebook (www.facebook.com/GoldenGlobes).

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news without fear. Throughout CPJ's 36-year history, it has advocated directly with U.S. authorities, urging them to support the rights of journalists all over the world. today, the environment for journalists has deteriorated dramatically. Preserving a free press in the U.S. and across the world is essential to ensure not only that journalists here can work freely but also to uphold CPJ's global mandate of protecting press freedom around the world.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is a non-profit organization that brings media from around the world to work together on giant projects. The ICIJ regularly collaborates with hundreds of investigative reporters in more than 70 countries - producing work such as THE PARADISE Papers and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers projects.

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