FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Len Bruzzese, 573-882-2042
Mike McGraw, Contest Committee chairman, 816-234-4423
March 21, 2000
WINNERS NAMED IN 1999 IRE AWARDS
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Washington Post, The Toledo Blade and The Nashville Scene took top honors in the 1999 IRE Awards, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. announced today.
Winning the prestigious IRE medals were Katherine Boo of The Washington Post, Sam Roe of The Toledo Blade and Willy Stern of The Nashville Scene.
The annual awards recognize outstanding investigative work in print, broadcast - and starting this year - online media.
The Post won in the large newspaper division for "Invisible Lives, Invisible Deaths," in which Boo showed how a multi-billion dollar program to service the most vulnerable in society had totally failed. The contest’s judges called Boo's reporting brilliant and writing passionate.
"The Post went to incredible lengths to track retarded citizens being moved from large institutions to group homes," said the judges. "It found that many were sexually assaulted, used as laborers, even treated as slaves. Boo's findings were so devastating that officials tried to shred documents after she asked for them."
The Blade won in the medium-sized newspaper division for "Deadly Alliance," in which Roe detailed how the use of beryllium in the making of nuclear weapons cost the lives of hundreds of workers exposed to the toxic metal.
"It was an exhaustive piece that forced into the open embarrassing information that government and industry wanted hidden, using tragic tales of people who spent years of their lives gasping for breath," said the judges.
The Scene won in the local circulation weeklies category for "Above the Law," in which Stern built a case against abusive security guards at a largely Hispanic apartment complex and a sordid relationship between the security company and the city police department.
"Stern used a wealth of documents and sources to build a rock-solid case," said the judges, who also noted that it was Stern's second consecutive win in a category only two years old.
A special citation was awarded in the contest’s new online category. APBnews.com was named for its "pioneering work to gather data and post it on the Internet for the benefit of the public," especially its efforts to gather and post financial disclosure forms of federal judges.
The Freedom of Information Award was given to the San Francisco Bay Guardian for efforts by Bruce B. Bruggman and the editorial staff to open public records. They pushed for a ballot measure to improve access when the mayor and governor were opposed to it. It won with 59 percent of the vote.
"It was an excellent job of combining advocacy for open records with investigative reporting that shows what you can do with those records," said the judges.
Others winning certificates:
The awards will be presented during a Saturday, June 3 luncheon at the IRE National Conference in New York City. The conference, to be held June 1-4 at the Hilton Waldorf-Astoria, will feature many of the winners speaking on the techniques they used to develop their stories.
IRE is a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to training and supporting investigative journalists and is based at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Copies of all contest entries are available from the IRE Resource Center, 573-882-3364.
