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Kate Howard, IRE Board Secretary
If you’ve attended an IRE conference before, you know how life-changing the training can be. IRE events are valuable not only because they teach us new investigative skills, but also because they build a community of support within our ever-changing and challenging industry.
The IRE Board of Directors wants to help even more journalists experience our training, which is why we’re hosting a fundraising challenge to raise money for AccessFest24 fellowships!
These fellowships will allow journalists to attend IRE’s upcoming fall conference at no cost. They are intended for journalists who would otherwise not be able to attend the conference due to financial constraints.
The best part? The Board is making sure your donation will go twice as far! We’ll match the first $1,000 that comes in earmarked for AccessFest fellowships. That means for every $100 you donate, we are sending two journalists to virtual training next month for free!
We hear it from our members all the time, from early-career journalists to the most seasoned investigators: IRE helps journalists feel empowered, inspired and excited to do great work in their newsrooms. The Board hopes AccessFest24 will help even more journalists get the training they need, especially those going through tough times.
To donate, please fill out this online form and enter "AccessFest24 Fellowships" when asked for the type of IRE fund. Whether you can kick in ten bucks or cover a whole fellowship for $100 – Your donation of any amount will get us closer to our goal. Thank you!
About AccessFest:
The AccessFest conference is virtual by design, created with the goal of expanding IRE training to journalists around the world in a more accessible and affordable format. Since 2021, AccessFest (previously branded as our DBEI Symposium), has offered training sessions on belonging, equity and inclusion – both within the newsroom and in news coverage. The conference also features IRE’s signature investigative and data classes.
(Sept. 23, 2024) — The IRE Radio Podcast has released two new episodes exploring recent developments since Investigative Reporters & Editors awarded its annual Don Bolles Medal and Golden Padlock Award at the 2024 IRE Conference.
Listen to the podcast episodes here:
You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify for Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and other streaming platforms. Read on for more information about each of the new episodes and additional resources and links to topics discussed.
On this episode, host Nakylah Carter chats with the 2024 Don Bolles Medal winner Eric Meyer, publisher of The Marion County Record.
The Don Bolles Medal acknowledges investigative journalists who have “exhibited extraordinary courage in standing up against intimidation or efforts to suppress the truth about matters of public importance.”
Victim to a police raid in August 2023, the newsroom of the Marion County Record received the 2024 Don Bolles Medal for refusing to be silenced. Just a mile down the road in the small Kansas town, the home of Meyer and his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, was raided at the same time as the newsroom. His mother died the day after the raid.
Meyer and Carter unpack what happened with the raid, the importance of support from fellow journalists, and how he and his newsroom persevered.
On this episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, host Nakylah Carter discovers how the Georgia Department of Corrections came to win the 2024 Golden Padlock Award for frequently and deliberately withholding public information.
Guest Lois Norder, senior editor for investigations at The Atlanta Journal Constitution, explains her colleagues’ struggle to cover the government agency despite heavily redacted incident reports, suppressed news of worker arrests linked to contraband, undisclosed prisoner escapes, withheld video footage and more!
Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter reported and hosted the episodes. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
The 13-member IRE Board of Directors elected officers for the 2024-25 term at a meeting June 27.
Brian M. Rosenthal, investigative reporter at The New York Times, was reelected president.
Josh Hinkle, director of investigations and innovation at KXAN in Austin, Texas, was reelected vice president.
Mark Greenblatt, executive editor of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, was reelected treasurer.
The new secretary is Kate Howard, editorial director at Reveal and Mother Jones. She succeeded Darla Cameron of the Texas Tribune, who did not seek reelection.
The new at-large officer is Ana Ley, a reporter at The New York Times. She follows Lam Thuy Vo, a reporter at The Markup and associate data journalism professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York. Vo did not seek reelection.
Officers serve one-year terms. All board members serve two-year terms; six are elected one year and seven the next year. Seven seats were up for election this year.
Greenblatt and Howard were reelected to the board at this year’s elections and are beginning their second two-year terms.
Rosenthal, Hinkle and Ley are in the second year of two-year terms.
Five new board members were elected this year: Alejandra Cancino, investigative reporter based in Chicago; Mary Hudetz, ProPublica reporter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Andrew Lehren, director of investigative reporting at City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism; Paroma Soni, data and graphics reporter at POLITICO; and Marina Villeneuve, legal reporter at Salon.
Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes announced the results of the 2024 elections at IRE24 in Anaheim, California, on June 22.
In addition to Cameron and Vo, three others ended their terms in June: Rick Gevers, longtime IRE member and broadcast journalism industry veteran; Aaron Kessler, data and investigative journalist with The Associated Press; and Mark Walker, investigative reporter at The New York Times. They did not seek reelection.
All five along with former board member Simone Weichselbaum, national investigative reporter at NBCUniversal, who resigned for medical reasons last year, were recognized at the IRE24 Awards Luncheon on June 23 for their service.
In the 2024 elections, IRE members elected seven journalists to the Board of Directors. Members present at the IRE24 membership meeting held Saturday, June 22, also approved six amendments to the IRE Articles of Incorporation on voice votes.
Two incumbents — Kate Howard of Reveal and Mark Greenblatt of Arizona State University — along with five newcomers — Alejandra Cancino of Injustice Watch; Mary Hudetz of ProPublica; Andrew Lehren of The City University of New York; Marina Villeneuve of Salon; Paroma Soni of Politico — were elected to two-year terms for the IRE Board of Directors in election results announced Saturday, June 22, 2024. IRE members also elected two members of the Contest Committee, which judges the IRE Awards. Voting was conducted in person and virtually.
The board will meet to elect new officers.
New members of the Contest Committee are Daniel Connolly of Law360 and independent journalist Mark Lagerkvist.
Full election results for the Board of Directors:
| Rank | Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kate Howard | 636 | 59.22% |
| 2 | Alejandra Cancino | 633 | 58.94% |
| 3 | Mary Hudetz | 585 | 54.47% |
| 4 | Mark Greenblatt | 562 | 52.33% |
| 5 | Andy Lehren | 550 | 51.21% |
| 6 | Marina Villeneuve | 501 | 46.65% |
| 7 | Paroma Soni | 482 | 44.88% |
| 8 | Andy Pierrotti | 439 | 40.88% |
| 9 | Gary Harki | 370 | 34.45% |
| 10 | Micah Luxen | 272 | 25.33% |
Full election results for the Contest Committee:
| Rank | Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Lagerkvist | 879 | 87.90% |
| 2 | Daniel Connolly | 833 | 83.30% |
As part of the membership meeting at IRE24, there was also a voice vote on each of six proposed amendments to the IRE Articles of Incorporation. The full text of each amendment is included below the voting results:
| Rank | Pass/Fail |
|---|---|
| Amendment #1 | Pass |
| Amendment #2 | Pass |
| Amendment #3 | Pass |
| Amendment #4 | Pass |
| Amendment #5 | Pass |
| Amendment #6 | Pass |
Amendment #1: To expand who can become a “Retired” member of IRE (Section 5.01)
Amendment #2: To expand who can apply to be an “Associate” member of IRE (Section 5.01)
Amendment #3: To allow recent college graduates to temporarily remain student members (Section 5.01)
Amendment #4: Technical/grammatical changes to Section 5.01
Amendment #5: To remove gendered language (Section 2.03)
Amendment #6: To clarify that members can vote on Articles amendments virtually (Section 10.10)
IRE has awarded the 2024 Don Bolles Medal to the Marion County Record for remaining steadfast and refusing to be silenced after police raided the Marion, Kansas, newsroom and the home of its publisher in August 2023. Police confiscated the news organization’s computers, hard drives and server, as well as reporters’ personal cell phones.
The raid was an extraordinary act by an American law enforcement agency, taken days after a reporter at the paper questioned the local police chief about potential misconduct at his previous job. It was quickly condemned by news organizations around the country as intimidation of the press and a violation of the First and Fourth Amendments.
The Don Bolles Medal recognizes investigative journalists who have exhibited extraordinary courage in standing up against intimidation or efforts to suppress the truth about matters of public importance.
The 98-year-old co-owner of the Marion County Record, Joan Meyer, died the day after police searched her home. Her son, publisher Eric Meyer, and the staff of the 4,000-circulation weekly newspaper cobbled together the equipment they needed to continue publishing that week’s issue.
“If we hadn’t been able to figure out how to get computers together, Phyllis and I and everybody else would be handwriting notes out on Post-it notes and putting them on doors around the town, because we were going to publish one way or another,” Meyer told the Kansas Reflector days after the raid.
The raid was based on a search warrant obtained by the police chief, who claimed that a reporter committed identity theft by accessing public state records posted online. The Marion County Attorney later said the search warrants were obtained without the evidence needed and the newspaper’s equipment was returned. Months later, the police chief resigned. A state investigation is ongoing.
“IRE is proud to honor the courage and sheer grit of Eric Meyer and his team in the face of the unconscionable actions of law enforcement against journalists doing their jobs for their community," said IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes.
A six-member committee reviewed more than a dozen nominations for the Don Bolles Medal. The committee included four previous recipients: Roman Badanin, Pelin Unker, Jeremy Jojola and A.C. Thompson. Kristine Phillips and AmyJo Brown also served.
“We took particular note of the small size of the family-owned Marion County Record and its limited resources and recognized the courage it takes to stand up against this incredible pressure in a small community,” said Brown, the committee’s chair. “Local journalists such as Joan and Eric Meyer and Deb Gruver and Phyllis Zorn are critical to protecting our democracy. We want them — and the world — to know we support them.”
"IRE members immediately responded after hearing about these illegal raids, offering whatever help the Marion County Record might need and our condolences on the passing of his mother, Joan Meyer," Fuentes said. "We stood with Eric Meyer that day and we stand with him and his staff today. We will not be intimidated."
The Don Bolles Medal was created in 2017 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Arizona Project, an effort led by IRE to finish the work of Don Bolles. The Arizona Republic investigative reporter was killed in 1976 by a car bomb in retaliation for his reporting.
Bolles' death came a few days before the first national IRE Conference in Indianapolis, where the veteran reporter had been scheduled to speak on a panel. At the time, Bolles had been investigating allegations of land fraud involving prominent politicians and individuals with ties to organized crime.
After his murder, nearly 40 journalists from across the country descended on Arizona to complete his investigation. News organizations across the country published their findings.
Their message: Even if you kill a reporter, you can’t kill the story.
A remarkable commitment to keeping the public in the dark about what’s happening in Georgia’s prisons has earned the Georgia Department of Corrections the 2024 Golden Padlock Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors. The award recognizes the most secretive government agencies in the U.S.
The agency was selected for shielding details about deaths, riots and drug overdoses in the state's prisons from the public, journalists, legislators and even investigators from the Department of Justice.
The department heavily redacted incident reports, rarely announced worker arrests linked to contraband and withheld video footage after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began exposing failures in the correctional system. After the DOJ opened an investigation, the state agency failed to comply with a federal subpoena for incident reports, internal investigations and audits until the court intervened.
IRE's Golden Padlock committee also named four other finalists that exemplified the techniques of secrecy and obfuscation the award seeks to highlight.
The winner of the 2024 Golden Padlock Award was announced during the awards luncheon at the IRE24 conference in Anaheim, California. IRE invited Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver to Anaheim to accept the award, but received no response.
Welcome to Anaheim!
If you’re attending IRE24 and looking for some ways to step away from the conference bubble (in addition to Disney, of course), here are some local events and places to check out! Please note, most events here are not affiliated with IRE, and this is not an exhaustive list.
IRE's annual investigative journalism conference will take place June 20-23 in Anaheim. Learn more about the conference, explore the schedule and register here.
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) is thrilled to announce that the keynote speaker at the 2024 IRE Conference in Anaheim will be Ava DuVernay.
The award-winning filmmaker will speak as part of a fireside chat with Kevin Merida, the former executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, on Saturday, June 22 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. PDT.
DuVernay, an Academy Award nominee and winner of Emmy, BAFTA and Peabody Awards, among numerous other awards, often focuses her documentaries and other films on historical events and journalists bearing witness to history.
Her historical drama “Selma” — which chronicles the 1965 voting rights marches — was the first film directed by a Black woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. “When They See Us,” a Netflix miniseries, received 16 Primetime Emmy nominations for its portrayal of the five teens falsely accused in the 1989 Central Park jogger case.
DuVernay’s most recent film, the critically-acclaimed “Origin,” chronicles the tragedy and triumph of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson, who investigates America’s class division and hierarchy as she writes her book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”
"For years, Ava DuVernay has championed the important work of investigative journalists and also pushed for improvements in the media industry and in Hollywood," IRE Board President Brian M. Rosenthal said. "She is an important voice, and we can't wait for our members to be motivated and inspired by her message."
Merida, who will speak with DuVernay in the fireside chat, has led award-winning coverage at the Los Angeles Times, ESPN, Andscape and The Washington Post. During his tenure, the Los Angeles Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and its first Oscar for the documentary short film, “The Last Repair Shop.”
"With IRE24 so close to Hollywood, even jaded journalists can be a little starstruck,” IRE executive director Diana Fuentes said. “We’re certain this keynote conversation will resonate with IRE members."
DuVernary’s other credits include “13th,” “Middle of Nowhere” and “Queen Sugar,” which became the longest running Black family drama in television history in its seven seasons.
She also broke ground with “Origin,” becoming the first African American woman director to compete in the Venice Film Festival, the world’s oldest film festival, in its 90-year history.
DuVernay spoke to TIME about the film’s significance today:
“This is a time when we need to be alert,” DuVernay told TIME. “We need to be aware of the stripping of freedoms and rights. The intention of certain people to distort history, to say it doesn't matter, to say it never happened. And books being taken off shelves, information being contorted. This is the time when we have to push through our fatigue and open our eyes and engage.”
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) is the nation’s premier training organization for investigative journalism. We provide training, resources and a community of support to thousands of journalists around the world.
Our annual conference will take place June 20-23 in Anaheim, California. Learn more about IRE24 here.
Investigative Reporters and Editors has named its finalists for the 2024 Golden Padlock Award honoring the most secretive public agency or official in the U.S.
The 2024 award celebrates the best of government opaqueness with five finalists chosen from a competitive field of nominees. Together, their secrecy techniques include hiding vital public records of public interest, ordering a police raid on a newsroom and fighting journalists in court to block public access to records.
"This group of finalists have exhibited unique ingenuity in their attempts to ensure the public is left in the dark about important issues impacting their communities," said Golden Padlock committee chair Robert Cribb. "Their commitment to secrecy is matched only by the impassioned work of journalists fighting to make it public.”
The finalists for the 2024 Golden Padlock Award are:
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto for a pattern of secrecy including suing a journalist for the return of public records that her own office gave out. The records included headshots of roughly 9,000 Los Angeles police officers released to journalist Ben Camacho in response to a public records request. Feldstein Soto later turned to the courts to demand the images not be published, claiming undercover officer images were included. Then, in a second suit, her office argued Camacho is liable for legal costs related to the release. Feldstein Soto failed to convince a judge that any undercover officers were included in the cache of images released. But the lawsuit remains before the courts amid vocal criticism from a coalition of media groups alleging her actions are an attack on First Amendment rights.
The Georgia Department of Corrections for shielding details about deaths, riots and drug overdoses in the state's prisons from the public, journalists, legislators and even investigators from the Department of Justice. Last year, a record 37 homicides occurred in Georgia’s prisons, yet the department issued only one news release between 2021 and 2023 about inmate deaths. The department increased secrecy by heavily redacting incident reports, rarely announcing worker arrests linked to contraband and withholding video footage — information it used to provide — after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began exposing failures in the correctional system and the DOJ opened an investigation. The state agency even failed to comply with a federal subpoena for incident reports, internal investigations and audits until the court intervened.
Marion County Kansas police chief Gideon Cody for leading a raid on the office of the Marion County Record and the home of its co-publisher, Eric Meyer. Police bodycam video shows Meyer’s 98-year-old mother and co-publisher, Joan Meyer, shouting down police officers as they rifled through the family’s personal belongings. She died the next day of a heart attack. The newspaper had been chasing a tip it had received about Cody but had not published the information. The raid has been widely condemned as an illegal abuse of power designed to silence small town journalists seeking to hold powerful figures in their community to account. Cody later resigned after released images of the raid showed him reviewing newspaper documents about himself. But there was other fallout, including the resignation of a senior journalist on the story, who cited anxiety about being a reporter in Marion County.
The Hawaii Department of Human Services for stonewalling a review of its own actions in the death of a 6-year-old girl. Federal law and state regulations require the state to disclose details of cases in which a child dies or nearly dies of abuse or neglect. It took a public interest law firm's petition to open the girl's case file to reveal why she was placed with adoptive parents who are accused of murdering her. Further reporting by Honolulu Civil Beat found that Hawaii reports far less than some other states about abuse and neglect deaths and near-deaths.
The Michigan State Police for refusing to release the names and employment histories of police officers. The data is crucial for reporters, citizens and researchers to identify "wandering cops" who find new law enforcement jobs following disciplinary actions, criminal misconduct or quiet firings. Michigan is among at least a dozen states where journalists have hit walls trying to access records that have helped identify officers that have changed jobs undetected after committing such offenses as planting evidence, beating suspects, taking kickbacks or making false arrests. Even Michigan’s attorney general — the state's chief law enforcement officer — is supporting reporters at the Invisible Institute and the Detroit Metro Times in a current lawsuit seeking to make the records public.
The winner of the 2024 Golden Padlock Award will be announced during the awards luncheon at the IRE Conference on Saturday, June 22, in Anaheim, Calif.
With Pride Month coming up in June, IRE members are excited to celebrate and reflect at IRE24.
Over the years, IRE has expanded programming on covering LGBTQ+ issues and historically marginalized communities, and this year is no exception. With more than a dozen IRE24 sessions — such as "Getting trans issues right in the 2024 elections" and "Investigating hate crimes and bias incidents" — journalists across the country will get top-notch training and guidance on how to responsibly and accurately cover these topics.
Some sessions were planned in partnership with LGBTQ+ members of IRE and the Trans Journalists Association; others were the result of listening sessions held to hear members' ideas and concerns.
Another panel, called "Authenticity in Investigations: Covering Your Own Communities," will help journalists navigate identity. Reporters who are members of minority groups, whether it be the LGBTQ+ community or a racial group, often face challenges and sometimes criticism when they cover their own communities. Especially on issues of objectivity and transparency.
At IRE24, Josh Hinkle of KXAN-TV, Barbara Rodriguez of The 19th and Kat Stafford of Reuters will share their experiences and how they ensure trust among their audiences.
This session was partly inspired by Hinkle's work at KXAN-TV, where he explored the nuances of this topic on an investigative podcast called "Catalyst." Francisco Vara-Orta, IRE's Director of Diversity and Inclusion, was a guest on this episode. (You can listen here before you head to IRE24).
Along with learning how to report, we're proud that the IRE Conference offers a friendly space for LGBTQ+ members and allies to meet and mingle. This year, the LGBTQ+ networking session will take place on Thursday, June 20, at 11:30 a.m.
Always a lively event, the networking session builds on others that have been hosted at conferences in recent years, including at NICAR24 in Baltimore.
"There was plenty of queer joy and connection among LGBTQ+ members and allies at NICAR24, and we’re expecting a similar spirit of camaraderie in Anaheim," said Olivia Sanchez, chair of IRE's LGBTQ+ subcommittee.
Sanchez and Hinkle, IRE Board Vice President and chair of IRE's Member Services Committee, hosted the two-part networking event in Baltimore. Vara-Orta and Training Director Adam Rhodes also were hosts. The listening part of the gathering led to a broad-based discussion on ideas for possible conference and workshop sessions, which bore fruit at IRE24 and will help shape conferences in the future.
At the NICAR24 event, members showed interested in increasing resources that could lead to stronger coverage of LGBTQ+ issues and finding ways to fill gaps for incomplete or inaccurate data related to queer and trans communities. These conversations are essential in helping IRE provide relevant and culturally competent training for its global membership.
If you have ideas or would like to contribute to this work, reach out to Vara-Orta at francisco@ire.org. Committees for 2024-25 will be appointed in July and August, and volunteers are welcome!
Francisco Vara-Orta is IRE's Director of Diversity and Inclusion. Josh Hinkle, of KXAN-TV in Austin, is IRE Board Vice President and chair of IRE’s member services committee. Olivia Sanchez, of The Hechinger Report, based in Portland, Oregon, is chair of the LGBTQ+ subcommittee.
IRE24 will take place June 20-23 in Anaheim, California. Learn more about the conference here.
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