The NPC's 36th annual Fourth Estate Award dinner, honoring Christiane Amanpour of CNN, promises to be one of the Club's most popular events of the year. And that's why the Club is encouraging its members to reserve early. Priority seating is available for members only through Oct. 1, at which point the remaining tickets will be available both to members and the general public.

Each NPC member is entitled to two tickets at the member price of $85 each; non-member tickets are $125 apiece. Reservations can be made by filling out the form to the right.

Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library at the National Press Club, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing timely research to journalists and media specialists and to giving media professionals the training they need to keep their skills sharp in these changing times.

The National Press Club bestows its Fourth Estate Award annually to an individual who has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism.

This year we honor Amanpour, chief international correspondent at CNN -- who, for decades, has courageously brought home stories of wars, famine and natural disasters for her viewers.

Amanpour is the thirty-sixth recipient of the Fourth Estate Award. She is the fourth female honoree and one of the youngest ever to receive the award. Previous Fourth Estate winners include Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, David Brinkley, Brian Lamb, Helen Thomas and most recently Paul Steiger of the Wall Street Journal.

Amanpour joined CNN in 1983 and worked her way up to correspondent first in CNN’s New York bureau before becoming a foreign correspondent in 1990. Her first major assignment was the Gulf War, and she has since covered wars, famine, genocide and natural disasters around the globe. She has secured exclusive interviews with world leaders, including Iranian Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as the Presidents of Sudan and Syria. After 9/11 she was the first foreign correspondent to interview British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Her work has won a TV Academy Award, eight News and Documentary Emmys, three George Foster Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, three DuPont-Columbia Awards, Courage in Journalism Award and many other accolades. In 2007, Amanpour received a Commander in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her "highly distinguished, innovative contribution" to the field of journalism. The City of Sarajevo named her an Honorary Citizen for her "personal contribution to spreading the truth" during the Bosnia war from 1992 to 1995.

Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library at the National Press Club, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing timely, relevant and accurate information to journalists and media specialists.