Kovach won the ninth annual Goldsmith Award in his final year at Harvard. He will retire from the Nieman Foundation at the end of this year. The 67-year-old plans to spend more time with his family and writing.
Previous winners of the Goldsmith Award include Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings and Bob Woodward.
At the ceremony, 10 young scholars were also awarded the Goldsmith Research Award. Robert W. McChesney received the Goldsmith Book Prize for the top book in press and politics his work, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. He received a $5,000 prize.
Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele of Time Magazine were awarded a $25,000 prize in investigative reporting for their book What Corporate Welfare Costs.