John Daniszewski

John Daniszewski is the vice president and editor at large for standards of The Associated Press. A former foreign correspondent who has reported from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia for The AP and the Los Angeles Times, he is a notable advocate for the safety of journalists.

Daniszewski served as the vice president of international news for the AP until June 2016. He also worked for the Los Angeles Times as a bureau chief in various municipalities (including London, Baghdad, Moscow and Cairo) from 1996 to 2006. He began his career with the AP, working as bureau chief in Johannesburg; as a correspondent in Warsaw; and as a reporter and editor in New York City, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 2018, the International Press Institute appointed him as the organization's special representative for journalist safety.

On December 12, 1989, Daniszewski was shot in Timișoara, Romania while covering the uprising against Nicolae Ceausescu during the Romanian Revolution. In his story on the incident that the AP published on December 26, 1989, he reported that he was shot three times, narrowly escaping death. One bullet grazed his skull, while two others hit his left arm. He wrote that he had left an embassy after filing his story via one of the few working telephone lines:"What followed was a nightmare of running with nowhere to hide. Every turn in the strange city seemed to lead to another firefight. We tried to make our way back to the hotel, going in ever wider circles because of the fighting. Finally, luck ran out. Driving into an intersection, somebody flashed a light on us and shouted in Romanian. Before we could answer or get out of the car, I saw the flash of a gun and realized in an instant they were shooting at us. For what seemed like an eternity, we screamed that we were journalists."

Los Angeles Times, (1996–2006) Daniszewski joined the Los Angeles Times in 1996 as the Middle East bureau chief based in Cairo and reporting from across the region. Under his leadership, the AP won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and launched the AP’s Nerve Center. In this capacity, he oversaw more than 500 editors and reporters in close to 100 foreign bureaus. In 2013, he interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also handled the deaths and injuries of multiple journalists, including the wounding of Kathy Gannon and the deaths of Anja Niedringhaus, Simone Camilli and Ali Shehda Abu Afash.

In 2016, Daniszewski became the AP’s Vice President and Editor at Large for Standards, where he oversees standards around partnerships, fact-checking and trust-building.

During his second stint with the Associated Press, he became a board member of several journalism organizations and groups, including the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2014. In 2012, Daniszewski founded the International Press Institute North American Committee’s Foreign Editors’ Circle. In 2018, the International Press Institute appointed him as the organization's special representative for journalist safety. He is also an executive committee member of the ACOS (A Culture of Safety) Alliance, an organization dedicated to strengthening protection standards for freelancers. In 2008, he was a Sulzberger Executive Leadership Fellow at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was named to the board of directors of the International Center for Journalists in 2018.

Personal life Daniszewski graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1979. He was a Sulzberger Executive Leadership Fellow at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2008.

He is married to Dru Menaker, the Chief Operating Officer of PEN America. They live in New York and have two adult children.