Contact:
Brant Houston, Executive Director, 573-882-2042, brant@ire.org

April 17, 2006

IRE members among 2006 Pulitzer winners

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Four members of Investigative Reporters and Editors, one of them on IRE's board of directors, were among the winners of the 2006 Pulitzer Prizes announced today. In addition, another IRE member was cited for his work on an award given to a newspaper and news service staff.

James V. Grimaldi, an IRE board member, and Dana Priest, both of The Washington Post, won in separate categories. James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times, won together for national reporting.

The award for investigative reporting went to Grimaldi, Susan Schmidt, and R. Jeffrey Smith of The Washington Post "for their indefatigable probe of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff that exposed congressional corruption and produced reform efforts," according to the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Risen and Lichtblau won an award for national reporting "for their carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping that stirred a national debate on the boundary line between fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberty," the Board stated.

The board cited Priest's beat reporting "for her persistent, painstaking reports on secret 'black site' prisons and other controversial features of the government's counterterrorism campaign."

An award for national reporting went to the staffs of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service, with notable work by IRE member Marcus Stern and Jerry Kammer, "for their disclosure of bribe-taking that sent former Rep. Randy Cunningham to prison in disgrace."

A full list of the Pulitzer Prize winners is available at www.pulitzer.org.