Kathy Gannon, Canada

Gannon was one of the few international journalists in the Afghan capital when terrorists attacked the United States, and she moved quickly to cover the world around her as it erupted into war. She was expelled from Afghanistan, but managed to return twice after the American bombing campaign started. At one point she was the only Western reporter in Kabul.

Gannon's years of steady reporting on the region and her wide network of sources paid off in understanding that shone through in her steady stream of stories. Gannon was inexhaustible as she courageously reported what she saw around her.

Working amid falling bombs in Kabul, writing her stories by lantern light, she recounted battles, explained the intricacies of Afghan politics and described the plight of ordinary Afghan people in clear, compelling prose. Bombs did not daunt her. Roadblocks of armed Taliban, who eyed her suspiciously because she was foreign and, even worse, a foreign woman, did not stop her.