The Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism recognizes the work of exceptional journalists and journalism organizations worldwide. Nieman Fellows in the class of 1964 established the award to honor the Nieman curator who retired that year.

2017 Winner

Lewis W. Diuguid, in recognition of his commitment to excellence in journalism and his work as a newsroom leader and role model for young journalists. During his nearly 40-year career as a reporter, editor, columnist and editorial board member at The Kansas City Star, Diuguid distinguished himself as a relentless advocate for newsroom diversity. He tirelessly used his voice to draw attention to societal inequities, write about civil rights and highlight systemic injustices.

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2016 Winner

The 2016 Lyons Award winner, Chinese journalist and author Yang Jisheng, was recognized in March for his ambitious and fearless reporting. Yang’s groundbreaking book “Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine 1958-1962” documents the true scale of one of the greatest human catastrophes of the 20th century.

• Read the speech transcript
• Read the press release
• Watch videos of the award ceremony in March 2016

The Taylor Award for Fairness in Journalism honors balanced and impartial news coverage by American journalists and news organizations. 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.

Winner

The Associated Press and reporters Margie Mason (a 2009 Nieman Fellow), Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan for their series “Seafood From Slaves,” which exposed the abusive and inhumane practices common in Southeast Asia’s fishing industry. The reporting led to the release of more than 2,000 slaves, jail time for a dozen of the offenders, a number of significant reforms and international calls for change.

Finalists

“An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” a collaboration between Marshall Project staff writer Ken Armstrong, a 2001 Nieman Fellow, and ProPublica investigative reporter T. Christian Miller to find out what really happened to an 18-year-old woman who reported being raped at knifepoint in her apartment near Seattle.

And “Insult to Injury: America’s Vanishing Worker Protections,” a collaborative series produced by reporter Michael Grabell and news applications developer Lena Groeger at ProPublica, together with NPR correspondent and 1998 Nieman Fellow Howard Berkes. The joint investigation into changing workers’ compensation laws found that over the past decade, states have been chipping away the system established a century ago to protect workers injured on the job.

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• Watch the award presentation and panel discussion with the winners and finalists

Established in 1967, the annual $20,000 Worth Bingham Prize honors investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is being ill-served.

Winner: The Tampa Bay Times, for disclosing in its multimedia “Failure Factories” series how district leaders in Florida’s Pinellas County transformed five elementary schools into some of the worst in the state through resegregation and intentional neglect. Reporters for the series were Cara Fitzpatrick, Lisa Gartner, and Michael LaForgia, who produced the series with data reporter Nathaniel Lash and photographer Dirk Shadd. Chris Davis was the editor.

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• Watch the award presentation and panel discussion

Established in 1998, the Lukas Prize Project honors the best in American nonfiction 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 ($10,000)

Winner: Susan Southard for “Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War.”

Finalist: Dale Russakoff for “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?”

The Mark Lynton History Prize ($10,000)

Winner: Nikolaus Wachsmann for “KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps”

Finalist: Timothy Snyder for “Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning”

The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award ($25,000)

Winner: Steve Luxenberg for “Separate: A Story of Race, Ambition and the Battle That Brought Legal Segregation to America.”

Finalist: Blaire Briody for “The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown.”

• Read the press release
• Watch the award ceremony and a conversation with the winners and moderator Jonathan Alter, chair of the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Committee

The Morris Lecture is presented annually by an American overseas correspondent or commentator on foreign affairs who is invited to Harvard to discuss international reporting.

Kathleen Carroll, executive editor and senior vice president of The Associated Press, presented the 2016 Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lecture on Dec. 1, 2016. Carroll is the top news executive of the world’s largest independent news agency, responsible for news content in all formats from the journalists based in more than 260 bureaus and 110 countries. As an industry leader, she has worked on government challenges to press freedom and on vital security issues for journalists in war zones and other hostile environments.

In her talk, Carroll highlighted the importance and value of international reporting:

“The work is dangerous. The risks are high. The market is shrinking and the audiences subject to boredom and ennui. So, then is international coverage worth it? Of course it is. Now more than ever. Our lives are too interconnected to turn our backs on the world. And we know from history the dangers of the rest of the world turning inward, too. Journalism is what can make the difference.”

• Read the press release
• Read the speech transcript
• Watch the 2016 Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lecture by Kathleen Carroll

Established in 2008, the I.F. Stone Medal 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.

2015 Winner

Robert Parry, founder and editor of Consortiumnews.com, for his career distinguished by meticulously researched investigations, intrepid questioning and reporting that has challenged mainstream media. Parry is perhaps best known for his breaking news reporting during the Iran-Contra Affair in the 1980s.

• Learn more and watch videos of the award ceremony, including Parry’s acceptance speech
• Listen to Robert Parry speak with Tom Ashbrook, NF ’96, on NPR’s On Point
• Read the press release