His brother's keeper

MEDAL OF FREEDOM |  New York Times journalist among winners of highest civilian honor; efforts against religious persecution cited  | Anne Morse

A.M. Rosenthal, the distinguished New York Times editor, had been a journalist for 40-plus years and accumulated his field's most prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. But it took a telephone call from a snarling stranger—Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Horowitz—to make Mr. Rosenthal realize he wasn't doing his job.

"Michael said that the biggest story in the world is the persecution of Christians. I found to my astonishment that it was true," Mr. Rosenthal said.

For the next five years, Mr. Rosenthal wrote repeatedly about the persecution of religious minorities—about Sudanese Christians kidnapped into slavery, about Chinese priests thrown into prison, about tortured Buddhist Tibetans, about Christians mistreated and murdered in Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. As well, Rosenthal wrapped his editorial tentacles around American businessmen who cared more about profits than persecution—and squeezed.