Born in Luxembourg City, the international affiliate correspondent for The Associated Press has covered news stories ranging from international summits to the Olympic Games, the war in Ukraine, US politics--including the 2020 US election campaign and President Biden’s inauguration--and other international affairs. His multilingual prowess wowed millions following his viral video reporting in French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, and Luxembourgish.
It comes as no surprise to see him featured among the recipients of this year’s Oliver S. Gramling Awards--spanning the globe from Thailand to Ukraine to the United States. The winners were selected by judges from the organisation for their “extraordinary tenacity, unflappable courage and steadfast commitment to AP’s mission.” Crowther has been living in the US for about 11 years and has reported from about 19 countries.
“The news stories I cover are quite varied… I have covered US politics and international affairs for ten years, so that might be my main area of expertise these days. More than a specific subject matter, it's the use of six languages that gives me the opportunity to travel to the biggest stories worldwide and cover them for as many broadcasters as possible, in as many languages as possible,” explains Crowther.
The Luxembourg who already speaks six languages fluently says he is learning Ukrainian, has tried his hands at Arabic and Japanese, and speaks some Catalan.
The 2022 Oliver S. Gramling Award winners
The $10,000 Gramling Achievement Award went to the AP Reporters Ukraine team comprising Crowther, GMS international affiliate correspondent, Chicago; Josef Federman, news director for Israel, Palestine and Jordan, Jerusalem; Jon Gambrell, news director for the Persian Gulf and Iran, Dubai; Nico Maounis, GMS head of special events Americas, New York; Ciaran McQuillan, GMS head of special events Asia, Bangkok.
I think most reporters feel one or both of two things: an instinct to be where big stories and events happen, and a sense of responsibility to share those stories with a larger audience or readership.
The $10,000 Gramling Spirit Awards went to Meg Kinnard, politics reporter, Columbia, South Carolina; Enric Martí, deputy director of photography for global enterprise, New York; Waraporn “Pom” Saetung, Asia international finance administrator, Bangkok.
The $10,000 Gramling Journalism Awards went to Pete Brown, Top Stories Hub editor, Philadelphia; Mariupol team: Mstyslav Chernov, video journalist, Kyiv, Ukraine; Evgeniy Maloletka, photographer, Kyiv, Ukraine; Vasilisa Stepanenko, producer, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Career snapshot
Since 2006, Crowther has worked with top media outlets worldwide. These include a traineeship in Montevideo, with the sports section of El País, Uruguay's largest daily newspaper in 2006. His first published articles were football reports for Luxembourg papers Woxx and Tageblatt.
He co-created and presented the "De Lexikon” radio show on Radio ARA in Luxembourg and also had work experience at RTL Radio and Television. He was also a reporter and anchor for France 24. His first war reporting experience was in Libya in 2011.
He has about a decade of experience as a White House correspondent with France 24 during the Obama and Trump administrations and was a freelance correspondent with RFI English in the same period. He’s worked as a correspondent at 100,7 Luxembourg since November 2012. Crowther took on the international affiliate correspondent role with the Associated Press in 2019.
More about Crowther
His motivation stems from his childhood news interests. “I was an avid news consumer as a child, growing up in Luxembourg. I would watch and listen to British sports news, and my parents would let my sister and myself watch the German evening news with them. On the way to school, we'd listen to the Luxembourg news,” he explains.
“I think most reporters feel one or both of two things: an instinct to be where big stories and events happen, and a sense of responsibility to share those stories with a larger audience or readership. I certainly feel both when I am covering breaking news events. I hate being bored, and I love meeting people and seeing new places; that’s another reason I have ended up with such an exciting job.” Nonetheless, football is, for him, a “lifelong passion”.
I've been lucky to have found a way of combining my two interests and passions: languages and journalism. Getting the chance to use the six languages I speak fluently in such an exciting job is very fulfilling, and a big responsibility.
He went through the Luxembourg school system in Mamer, spent three years at the Lycée Technique Michel-Lucius and graduated from the Athénée de Luxembourg (language section with Spanish) in 2002. As an undergraduate he studied hispanic studies at King's College London in 2008 (including Portuguese language studies) and later received a postgraduate diploma in broadcast journalism from London College of Communication (part of the University of the Arts) in 2008.
This year, the Luxembourger received the Officer of the Luxembourg Order of Merit medal (Ordre de Mérite du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg) conferred on him by the Grand Duke. In 2021, he also received a Professional Excellence Prize by the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the US.
An original version of this article first appeared in the --see page 33. More information has been added following the announcement of the 2022 Oliver S. Gramling Award winners.