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Jim Polk, a longtime IRE leader and member, died on July 15th in his home in Atlanta. Polk, 83, had a distinguished career as an investigative journalist in both print and broadcast, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for his coverage of Watergate.
Three incumbents and three newcomers were elected to two-year terms for the IRE Board of Directors in election results announced Saturday. IRE members also elected two members of the Contest Committee, which judges the IRE Awards.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has won the Investigative Reporters and Editors 2021 Golden Padlock Award honoring the most secretive public agency or official in the U.S.
IRE is returning to in-person events with a symposium in Baltimore in October focusing on diversity, belonging, equity and inclusion (DBEI) issues for newsrooms.
IRE’s Don Bolles Medal for 2021 has been awarded to four investigative journalists who have courageously worked to expose human rights abuses in China, as well as that country’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, and faced retaliation from the government of China for their reporting.
Investigative Reporters and Editors has named a competitive field of finalists for its 2021 Golden Padlock Award honoring the most secretive public agency or official in the U.S. Drawn from nominations from journalists across the country, four finalists were chosen for their extraordinary commitment to secrecy, ranging from suing a reporter over a request for public information, denying public access to a report detailing institutional failures that allowed ongoing abuse of children, filing subpoenas to access reporters’ research and deleting communications sought by reporters.
The 2021 IRE virtual conference will feature IRE’s partnership with JournalismMentors.com, where IRE members can sign up to mentor other professional journalists at various stages in their careers as well as student journalists. Any journalist seeking mentorship can visit the site to find a mentor who suits their needs and sign up for an appointment to meet the mentor virtually.