The Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will honor five local journalists and a First Amendment activist at its 44th annual Distinguished Journalists Awards Ceremony, which will air on Dec. 2.

The honorees are longtime regional journalists practicing in print, television, radio and digital media. They are: Southern California News Group senior editor Tom Bray; Maria L. La Ganga, Metro reporter for the Los Angeles Times; retired KNX1070 reporter and anchor Diane Thompson; KTLA assignment manager Vance Scott; and Lynell George, journalist and essayist.

The Freedom of Information Award will go to David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition.

The ceremony originally had been scheduled for March as an in-person banquet. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, that event was canceled and honorees are being celebrated in a video ceremony emceed by KNX 1070’s Frank Mottek, an SPJ/LA board member and a past Distinguished Journalist honoree.

The Distinguished Journalist Award, created in 1976, honors journalists who have achieved a record of accomplishment over a number of years. The award recognizes journalists in television, radio, digital media, newspapers with a circulation of 90,000 or more, and newspapers with a circulation of less than 90,000.

The Freedom of Information Award goes to people – typically not journalists — who have championed freedom of the press and helped further the free flow of information.

WHAT: SPJ/LA’s 44th Annual Distinguished Journalists Awards Ceremony

WHO: Tom Bray, Maria L. La Ganga, Diane Thompson, Vance Scott, Lynell George, David Snyder, with Master of Ceremonies Frank Mottek

WHEN: 6 p.m. Wednesday, December 2

WHERE: Zoom

CONTACT: SPJ/LA Banquet Chair Sarah Favot, 617-756-5643, sarah.favot@gmail.com