“A free press is the final line of defense against dictatorship and tyranny.”

Donald Kirk has been a journalist mainly in Asia since going to Indonesia in late 1965 in a period of civil strife, “the Year of Living Dangerously”.

“From Indonesia, I gravitated to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos as a correspondent based in Hong Kong for the old Washington Star and then in Tokyo for the Chicago Tribune. I spent a year as Edward R. Murrow fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and freelanced from Tokyo and Korea before joining USA Today as an editor and correspondent.

“I have had senior Fulbright research grants in India and the Philippines and have written two books from Korea, one on the late Korean president, Kim Dae-Jung, the other on bases in Okinawa and Jeju. My latest, “Kim Dae Jung and the Quest for the Nobel,” co-author Kim Kisam, was published this year in Norway under the title “Jakkten Pa Nobels Fredspris.”

Prizes include an Overseas Press Club award for Asia reporting in 1971, a George Polk Award for foreign reporting in 1975 and three OPC citations.