Bogota, July 23 (IANS/EFE): Brazilian journalist Dorrit Harazim was awarded the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Journalism Prize for career excellence for her coverage of international events spanning a half century, award organisers said.

The 72-year-old Harazim, a native of Croatia, is currently a columnist for the Rio de Janeiro daily O Globo and also devotes her time to other journalism and documentary projects, said the Cartagena, Colombia-based Foundation for New Ibero-American Journalism, created by the late Colombian Nobel literature laureate.

Harazim has had a "brilliant and inspiring journalistic career", getting her start in 1966 as an investigative reporter with French magazine L'Express and later participating in the creation of Brazilian news weekly Veja, "a leader in narrative journalism in Brazil" and the region, said a steering committee of the foundation.

During her career, she covered major international stories including the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, the 1973 coup that overthrew Chilean President Salvador Allende, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, four US presidential elections and nine Olympic Games.

She has received 11 journalism awards for her coverage.

"Despite her place of birth and the fact that her first experience as a journalist was in French, many of those who have the pleasure of reading her in her native language confidently state that Dorrit is the best writer of Portuguese in Brazil," it added.

The committee also highlighted Harazim's "great versatility", noting that she writes with equal skill about Olympic sports, international politics or women's prisons.

She will receive her award at a September 30 gala in the Colombian city of Medellin, where the winners in the categories of features and reporting, visual journalism, news coverage and innovation also will be unveiled.