for coordinating as a multi-format team to produce consistently outstanding images – photo and video – during nearly two weeks of violent protests by indigenous demonstrators who clashed with police and journalists, creating a risky, complicated environment for newsgathering.https://bit.ly/2BGxLQehttps://bit.ly/2MIjb0K
for revealing that a Connecticut police officer wasn’t disciplined by the town’s police chief for being a member of the Proud Boys, a right-wing group known for violent clashes at political rallies. The officer’s previous membership in the group didn’t violate department policies, East Hampton’s police chief concluded in response to a civil rights group’s concerns. https://bit.ly/2MHsXAr
President Donald Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine’s president, and the ensuing impeachment investigation, has been the hottest story in Washington for weeks. It’s extremely challenging to find new ways to report on the conversation and gather new details of how a rough transcript of the call was created and handled.
Deb Riechmann managed to do it all, with a deeply reported 1800-word story that laid out everything we know about who was on the call, how such conversations are memorialized and what happens to the rough transcripts once they are created.
For uncovering tantalizing new details about Trump’s fateful phone call with the Ukraine president, AP’s Best of the Week citation goes to White House reporter Deb Riechmann.
When the Helena Police Department cited the statute of limitations in declining to bring charges against Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton for misuse of a state-owned vehicle, Helena reporter Amy Hanson dug deeper.
After multiple public-records requests Hanson found that Secretary of State Corey Stapleton traveled tens of thousands of miles more than what had been previously reported, including many times when he had no official events on his calendar. And she found that the misuse continued until he turned in the vehicle in March, well within the statute of limitations.
For determined reporting that resulted in a textbook example of accountability journalism, Amy Hanson wins this week’s Best of the States award.
for a beautifully shot all-formats package that captures the collapse of Venezuela’s once-prosperous oil industry through fishermen and women who scratch out an existence on the blackened, sticky shores of Lake Maracaibo. People cast their nets and lines in waters fouled by black gunk seeping from broken rigs that once fueled the country’s wealth. Abd spent several days in the villages of Cabimas, documenting the home life and workday of the fishers. He returned with a team including Smith and Nunes. They watched the fishermen struggle with oily nets, and interviewed women who scrub oil from fish and crabs before eating or selling them. On his second trip to Cabimas, Abd brought a 19th century-style box camera to make black and white portraits of the fishermen and industrial decay around them. The package played widely on web sites including the Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, MSN and Yahoo.https://bit.ly/2pd49quhttps://bit.ly/2Bnd5wwhttps://bit.ly/2MqwenJ
for an only-on-AP all-formats win in coverage of Hong Kong’s democracy protests, revealing that medics are secretly banding together to privately treat injured protesters who fear arrest if they go to government-run hospitals. The exclusive also showed that government figures significantly underestimate the true extent of injuries. One of the “hidden healers” agreed to go on camera, generating impressive online and broadcast play.https://bit.ly/33EVEDKhttps://bit.ly/32tr5AAhttps://bit.ly/2Mo0gZa
for chronicalling efforts to save one of Earth’s most iconic species, the African lion, in a package that include intimate portraits of the Maasai people trying to live among lions, and stunning photos and video of the landscape they inhabit.https://bit.ly/2BrBgtvhttps://bit.ly/35KM6ZR
for overcoming major obstacles to cover Turkey’s offensive into northern Syria, including disruptions of communications networks, hostility to international media and sporadic shelling. The pair provided powerful visual coverage of the military buildup on the Turkish side of the border, early scenes of troops crossing into Syria and a live shot of the border and the chaotic scene of a mortar attack in the Turkish town of Akcakale. Strong contributions from Beirut rounded out the coverage.https://bit.ly/33ehnCehttps://bit.ly/2MRpii9https://bit.ly/2nZnH1y
for their extraordinary story of a three-decade-long coverup by the Catholic Church about the life of Gerald Erebon, who learned after his mother’s death that his father was an Italian missionary priest who impregnated his mother in Kenya when she was only 16 years old. https://bit.ly/33ony6Vhttps://bit.ly/32rKdyThttps://bit.ly/33DWikN
for telling the story of how the war in Afghanistan came home to a hamlet in upstate New York. The town celebrated their homegrown warrior, Army Sgt. James Johnston – who was only 7 when the war that claimed his life began – and the soldier’s young widowed bride Krista and their unborn infant.https://bit.ly/33GF1rfhttps://bit.ly/35J7bUwhttps://bit.ly/31nVb7i
for reporting exclusively that a former Ethiopia Airlines chief engineer says the carrier delved into the maintenance records on a Boeing 737 Max jet a day after it crashed this year, part of what he says was a pattern of corruption that included fabricating records, signing off on shoddy repairs and even beating employees who got out of line. The jet’s crash in March killed all 157 people on board. https://bit.ly/2pupJqV
for an all-formats package that broke news about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Donald Trump has quietly converted a network of rural prisons in Louisiana into a major hub of migrant detention.https://bit.ly/35r23Ehhttps://bit.ly/2IVaTk3https://bit.ly/2nUX4ux
The calls on social media were informal and scattered, urging demonstrations Oct. 1 in Baghdad to protest deteriorating living conditions in the battered Iraqi capital. There was nothing to indicate that the protests would be more significant than previous actions. But Khalid Mohammed, AP’s chief photographer in Baghdad, had a hunch. He put the demonstrations on the bureau’s planner and urged all formats to be ready, despite the prevailing mood of skepticism.
Mohammed’s assessment proved prescient. The demonstrations erupted into five days of furious violence, the worst in the country since the quieting of its internal war against the Islamic State group. AP’s staff witnessed the first violence and stayed on the grueling story for days.
For their anticipation and courageous eyewitness journalism that set AP apart, Mohammed, photographer Hadi Mizban, video journalist Ali Jabar and reporter Qassim Abdul-Zahra share AP’s Best of the Week award.
As the ranks of dioceses promising to release lists of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse began to mushroom at the beginning of this year, Philadelphia reporter Claudia Lauer and Washington-based data editor Meghan Hoyer started to strategize: How could they leverage the information on a scale never before accomplished?
After months of systematic, dogged work, the result was “Where Are They Now,” a blockbuster investigation that found almost 1,700 priests and other clergy members living with little to no oversight, many with positions giving them access to children. Dozens have committed crimes, including sexual assault.
The story received exceptional play online and in print, and AP Managing Editor Brian Carovillano called it, “One of the most monumental pieces of AP journalism in my memory.”
For a stunning investigation that breaks new ground in the already impressive body of work that is “The Reckoning” series, Lauer and Hoyer win this week’s Best of the States award.
As the ranks of dioceses promising to release lists of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse began to mushroom at the beginning of this year, Philadelphia reporter Claudia Lauer and Washington-based data editor Meghan Hoyer started to strategize: How could they leverage the information on a scale never before accomplished?
The hurdles were high: Many of the released lists were lacking in basic information, and the priests had scattered around the U.S. and beyond, living almost entirely under the radar.
After months of systematic, dogged work, the result was “Where Are They Now,” a blockbuster investigation that found almost 1,700 priests and other clergy members living with little to no oversight, many with positions giving them access to children. Dozens have committed crimes, including sexual assault.
The story received exceptional play online and in print, and AP Managing Editor Brian Carovillano called it, “One of the most monumental pieces of AP journalism in my memory.”
For more on this groundbreaking investigation which also received this week’s Best of the States award, see the full citation here.https://bit.ly/2pIr4u8https://bit.ly/2nBkh4Yhttps://bit.ly/2p42Zh6
for breaking the story that while Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate one of Donald Trump’s main political rivals, a group of his business associates was also active in the former Soviet republic, trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine’s massive state gas company. Two people with knowledge of the plans told AP that these businessmen and Republican donors, touting connections to Giuliani and Trump, were prepared to steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies. https://bit.ly/2IteINg
for team photo coverage in Beijing and Hong Kong, with photo editing and curation on international photo desks, showing the contrast between Beijing’s celebration of the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic founding, and the escalated violence of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests on the same day.https://bit.ly/35kqLWGhttps://bit.ly/35jtEqJ
for acting on a tip from a trusted source to break the news of the death of opera legend Jessye Norman, leading numerous outlets to credit AP and use its obituary. https://bit.ly/2nxPGFi
for using dozens of public records requests to break news on the FBI’s efforts to warn American colleges and universities that they’re vulnerable to economic and industrial espionage by China. Emails obtained by AP underscore the extent of U.S. concerns that universities, as recruiters of foreign talent and incubators of cutting-edge research, present a particularly inviting target for espionage. https://bit.ly/2ovvbtc
for following up on an offhand remark by an Ivy League fundraiser to document how the Sackler family, behind the powerfully addictive opioid OxyContin, gave money to colleges and universities on a much larger scale than previously known: at least $60 million to prestigious schools worldwide – including millions donated after the company became embroiled in lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic. https://bit.ly/2AGZ78o