The Nieman Fellows at Harvard University have selected Marcela Turati of the Mexican newsmagazine Proceso as this year’s recipient of the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. Turati was chosen for her coverage of the drug war and her role in protecting and training members of the media. She is a standard-bearer for the journalists who have risked their lives to document the devastating wave of violence in Mexico. Read more
C. J. Chivers, senior writer for The New York Times, will deliver the 32nd Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lecture at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard on Nov. 29, 2012. The annual Morris Lecture honors an American overseas correspondent or commentator on foreign affairs who is invited to Harvard to speak about international reporting. Read more
Sandy Close, executive editor and director of Pacific News Service (PNS), has been selected as winner of the 2012 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard will present the award in Cambridge, Mass., on Dec. 6, 2012. Read more
Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation have named the winners of the 2012 Lukas Prize Project Awards. Vanderbilt University law professor Daniel Sharfstein has won the 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White." The Mark Lynton History Prize goes to Sophia Rosenfeld, a University of Virginia professor, for Common Sense: A Political History. And Jonathan M. Katz, a former AP reporter and editor, is winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster." Read more
The Los Angeles Times has won the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism for its six-part series “Billions to Spend.” During an 18-month investigation, the paper found that a $5.7 billion program to rebuild nine community colleges in Los Angeles was plagued with serious problems including mismanagement and reckless spending that wasted tens of millions of dollars and betrayed the public’s trust. Read more
The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., has won the 2011 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers for “Twisted Truth: A Prosecutor Under Fire,” a three-part series reported by J. Andrew Curliss about prosecutorial misconduct by Durham’s district attorney Tracey Cline. Read more
“Why do we do it?” Ann Curry asked that question about her work and the work of other foreign correspondents, during the 31st Joe Alex Morris, Jr. Lecture at the Nieman Foundation on February 2. In her case, she said, it’s for “a hope—one that is often unrequited—that some good will come out of what we do.” Read more
Ann Curry, co-anchor of NBC News’ “Today” program, will deliver the 31st annual Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lecture on February 2, 2012. Each year, the Morris Lecture honors an American overseas correspondent or commentator on foreign affairs who is invited to deliver a talk on international reporting. Read more
Nieman Fellows at Harvard University have selected Mohammed “Mo” Nabbous, founder of Libya Alhurra TV, as this year’s recipient of the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. Nabbous, who was killed in March, was chosen as a representative of all those who courageously worked to disseminate news during the Arab Spring. Read more
A.C. Thompson received the 2011 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence on Oct. 4 at Boston University. Thompson is a staff reporter for ProPublica whose work frequently exposes social injustice and the abuse of power. His reporting on events in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was critical to the uncovering of a string of racially motivated killings of unarmed civilians by New Orleans police officers. He recently spoke with Nieman Watchdog about criminal justice reporting. Read more