CBS News' Debora Patta, Liz Palmer and Susan Zirinsky seen at the Free Expression Awards at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on Thu., April 4, 2019. CBS News

CBS News foreign correspondents Elizabeth Palmer, Debora Patta and Holly Williams are being honored for their commitment to free speech and a free press. They were honored at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., as recipients of the fourth annual Free Expression Awards, which recognizes individuals for courageous acts.

CBS News president and senior executive producer Susan Zirinsky presented them with the award.

"All of us at CBS News believe that what they do — what we all do — is a calling. A vocation. It's a public service," Zirinsky said in her remarks. "What Liz and Debora and Holly do is expose oppression, violence sometimes in the name of a repressive government, sometimes by groups who want nothing more than to create anarchy. Our job is to speak truth to power. From every corner of the globe, Liz, Debora and Holly have wielded the power of the free press to reveal the world to itself."

.@Debora_Patta is a @CBSNews foreign correspondent based in South Africa. She joined in 2013 and has reported on major international stories across the continent, including the Ebola outbreak, the kidnapping of schoolgirls by Boko Haram and the famine in South Sudan. pic.twitter.com/HUijItppyO — Newseum (@Newseum) April 5, 2019

In accepting the honor, Patta said that as journalists they "bear witness" to atrocities, war and its consequences, saying to do so they have to "conquer our fears constantly." But she said they have a responsibility to report on what they see.

Get Breaking News Delivered to Your Inbox

"The best way to uphold the right to free speech is to exercise that right and we do this by telling the stories of those who would otherwise remain the silent, unnamed victims of unspeakable suffering, in Syria, in South Sudan, the DRC and so many other places," Patta said.

Palmer shared her experiences reporting from Iran, Egypt, Russia and Syria.

"They recognize that freedom of expression is the underpinning of accountable, representative democracy. It keep corruption and tyranny in check and it is worth fighting for," Palmer said.

She accepted her award in honor of Nasrin Sotoudeh, who defended the rights of Iranian women to take their headscarves off in public and was sentenced to 38 years in prison.

Liz Palmer, Susan Zirinsky and Debora Patta CBS News

Williams was not in attendance. On Tuesday, she gave birth to a son, Iskender Erceri. Both mom and baby are doing well.

Other award winners include #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, award-winning director Ava DuVernay, Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness from the show "Queer Eye." Judy Woodruff, anchor of "PBS NewsHour," received a lifetime achievement award.