The Nieman Foundation presents a series of annual journalism awards that recognize outstanding reporting and writing in several categories. The awards help spotlight innovative investigations and reporting projects, many of which have led to important hearings and reforms at the local, state and national level.
During a ceremony in May 2024, the Nieman Foundation presented three of its awards – the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism, the Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism and the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence – to the latest winners and finalists.
The Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism
The Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism recognizes the work of courageous journalists and newsrooms around the world. Nieman Fellows in the class of 1964 established the award to honor the Nieman curator who retired that year, and new winners are chosen each year by fellows who are studying at Harvard. The award includes a $2,500 honorarium.
2024 Winner
Members of the Nieman class of 2024 selected Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Nikolov as winner of the 2024 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. In announcing their selection, the Nieman Fellows said: “Nikolov’s high-profile corruption investigations into alleged graft in the Ukrainian military shine a light on the importance of watchdog reporting even in the most dire of circumstances. At great personal and reputational risk, Nikolov’s reporting has asked for accountability in the use of public funds, even while his country continues to fight Russia’s invasion.”
Nikolov accepted his award and spoke with the class via Zoom from Ukraine.
The Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism
Established in 1967, the annual $20,000 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism honors investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is being ill-served. The award honors the memory of journalist Worth Bingham
2023 Winner (presented in 2024)
“Alone and Exploited,” by New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier won the 2023 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism. Dreier’s hard-hitting investigation exposed the staggering scope of America’s hidden migrant child workforce and examined the policy failures and willful disregard by government administrators and corporations alike that allowed children to work in dangerous, sometimes life-threatening conditions in violation of child labor laws.
Dreier found migrant children, many who had entered the country as unaccompanied minors, working in all 50 states, often making household products for companies including Fruit of the Loom, Ford, General Mills, J. Crew, and Ben & Jerry’s. They held jobs in factories, on construction sites and in slaughterhouses, sometimes working overnight shifts to earn money to send to their families back home and often while trying to go to school. The reporting swiftly led to important government and corporate reforms.
The Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism
The Taylor Award for Fairness in Journalism honors news coverage by American journalists and news organizations that demonstrates exceptional balance and impartiality. Members of the Taylor family, who published The Boston Globe from 1872 to 1999, established the $10,000 award in 2001. Finalists receive $1,000 each.
2023 Winner (presented in 2024)
“Stalled Justice,” a Chicago Tribune investigation into the Cook County’s dysfunctional court system in Illinois reported by reporters Joe Mahr and Megan Crepeau, is the winner of the 2023 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism. The four-part investigation exposed the massive delays and logjams that for years have plagued the Cook County courts. The reporters revealed the toll the problems have taken on both victims of crime seeking justice and defendants in jail who have waited years for trials.
Mahr and Crepeau filed more than three dozen record requests, analyzed millions of lines of raw data, examined 40 court files, attended more than 1,000 hearings and reviewed five decades’ worth of studies chronicling problems in Chicago’s courts and the long-ignored recommendations to fix them. Other staff members who contributed to the coverage include photojournalist Brian Cassella and editors Jeff Coen and Kaarin Tisue.
Judges selected two finalists for the Taylor Award:
- “Alone and Exploited,” a six-part series by New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier, exposed the hidden world and stunning scope of migrant child labor in the U.S. and the many policy failures that have led to a shadow workforce across the country.
- “The Mercy Workers,” a story by Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah, offers a rare look at a secretive profession of mitigation specialists who attempt to save prisoners from the death penalty
The I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence
Established in 2008, the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence recognizes journalistic independence and honors the life of investigative journalist I.F. Stone. The award is presented annually to a journalist whose work captures the spirit of independence, integrity and courage that characterized I.F. Stone’s Weekly, published from 1953 to 1971. The award includes a $1,500 honorarium.
2024 Winner
Jerry Mitchell, director and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting (MCIR), is winner of the 2024 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence, selected in recognition of his exemplary body of work and lifelong commitment to investigative journalism. For the past four decades, his stories have exposed injustices, corruption and abuse of power in the American South and his work has prompted prosecutions, important reforms of state agencies and firings of state board officials. Mitchell’s hard-hitting cold case investigations helped lead to convictions of Ku Klux Klan members many years after they committed some of the nation’s most notorious crimes.
Speaking about this year’s decision, I.F. Stone Medal jury member Michael Riley said: “Mitchell continues to shepherd amazing work as a mentor and editor to up-and-coming young reporters. I think the continued work coming from MCIR – and its collaboration with Mississippi Today – really does show the profound and ongoing influence Mitchell has had in Mississippi and nationally.”
J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards
The J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project was established in 1998 to honor the best in American nonfiction book writing. Co-administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation, the project is sponsored by the family of the late Mark Lynton, a historian and senior executive at the firm Hunter Douglas in the Netherlands.
The J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
Winner: Dashka Slater for “Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed”
Finalist: Kerry Howley for “Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State”
The Mark Lynton History Prize
Winner: Ned Blackhawk for “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History”
Finalist: Gary J. Bass for “Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia”
The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award
Winners: Lorraine Boissoneault for “Body Weather: Notes on Illness in the Anthropocene” and Alice Driver for “The Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company”