for cross-format coverage of deadly tornadoes that told the compelling, heartbreaking stories of those affected and kept AP out front. http://bit.ly/2jypEuf https://yhoo.it/2jfXfrP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEg2QvRmdlY
The scene was nightmarish. Women and girls fleeing fighting in South Sudan had taken refuge in a United Nations camp. As fighting subsided, they ventured out in search of food, but just outside the camp, they were dragged off by soldiers and raped. Two died of their injuries. At least one attack was said to have occurred within sight of U.N. peacekeepers.
The details in Jason Patinkin’s only-on-AP story could not have been reported without getting into the camp – but the U.N. at first blocked journalists from entering. Demanding access along with other journalists – and winning – in the midst of already challenging coverage allowed Patinkin to produce an exclusive that prompted outrage around the world. It earns Beat of the Week.
for traveling to Yei, in the thick of simmering conflict, and getting unmatched text, photos and video of ethnic violence that is threatening to plunge the new country into a spiral that a U.N. envoy warned could be like genocide. http://www.mrt.com/news/world/article/Wave-of-ethn...
The Associated Press has aggressively covered the Dakota Access pipeline since even before construction began on the four-state pipeline to carry oil from North Dakota. The AP tracked the approval process and then was there every step of the way as the project spawned demonstrations from Native Americans and others who set up protest camps by the pipeline’s final piece near the Missouri River, saying construction would damage cultural artifacts and that a pipeline leak could pollute tribal water supplies. In the past few months, the AP has had coverage almost every day.
While Bismarck staffer James MacPherson had covered the story cross-format with the help of colleagues, a visually-focused enterprise project was in the works for December, bringing in staff from afar to provide video and photo elements of the largest camp to accompany a piece that was to explore the protest in the context of other issues being faced by Native Americans now and into the Trump administration. On Friday, Nov. 25, the news forced us to speed up our timeline for visuals as the Army Corps of Engineers gave a Dec. 5 deadline for protesters to get off the land.
Late in the evening on Dec. 4, West Region photo editor Stephanie Mullen was monitoring a fire that broke out in Ventura County, about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Mullen knew that if the notorious Santa Ana winds really picked up the flames could start burning homes.
She hired Northern California freelance photographer Noah Berger, an expert at shooting wildfires, and partnered him with Los Angeles-based staff photographer Jae Hong. Berger and Hong were in place as daylight broke and the fire surged into the city of Ventura, where it burned hundreds of homes. They rapidly shot and filed, allowing AP to deliver striking imagery before our competitors had even started their day.
The AP owned the coverage in those important early hours with impressive play globally.
Later that morning, Orange County-based photographer Chris Carlson worked his way through road closures to make images of horses being rescued and flames overwhelming homes in Los Angeles County. And as the week wore on, photographer Greg Bull snaked his way through roadblocks and heavy traffic to capture nighttime images of fires in San Diego County, then slept in his car and got haunting daybreak photos of the destruction.
For providing a photo package no competitor could rival, Hong, Carlson, Bull and Berger share this week’s Best of the States prize.
for securing exclusive access to the first meeting of rival commanders under the country’s new peace deal as they now must make nice after five years of vicious fighting. https://bit.ly/2E2iRGq
drew on experience and stamina for comprehensive all-formats coverage of the worst civil unrest in the country's post-apartheid history.Starting with a weeklong stakeout and fast, accurate reporting on the midnight arrest of former President Jacob Zuma for contempt of court, the story quickly shifted: Zuma’s supporters burned trucks on a main highway, blocking it and severing the port city Durban from other parts of the country — the first sign of worse trouble to come.With violence spreading to various locations through KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, leaving scores of people dead, the crew of staff and freelancers delivered strong, distinctive visuals, including multiple video edits, live video of rioting at a Soweto mall, drone images and dramatic photos despite attacks on journalists.Amid the chaos, multiple reports of violence, deaths, looting were deftly edited day after day into a comprehensive report that also provided political and societal context referencing South Africa’s underlying economic problems. The story “‘I was in tears’: South Africans take stand against rioting” stands out in the week’s strong body of work.https://aplink.news/qqjhttps://aplink.news/436https://aplink.news/brxhttps://aplink.video/q6ghttps://aplink.video/uchhttps://aplink.video/6uk
scooped North Dakota media by revealing just how extensively — and expensively — a state senator had traveled on the taxpayer’s dime.MacPherson obtained documents showing that Republican Sen. Ray Holmberg, who recently announced he would end his 46-year-career following a report that he had traded scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges, had run up more than 14 times the average travel expenses for the state’s lawmakers over the past decade, on trips that included China, Puerto Rico and New Orleans.Read more
used campaign finance reports to document North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is helping bankroll a political action campaign aimed at unseating a powerful legislator and fellow Republican who had frustrated some of Burgum’s goals. Burgum was elected in 2016 as an outsider businessman, and has long clashed with the state’s Republican old guard, including House Appropriations Chairman Jeff Delzer. https://bit.ly/2LM84CL
for offering a view inside South Sudan’s most notorious prison and also breaking the news that a South Sudanese rebel spokesman who had been deported by Kenya, despite his refugee status, was being held in solitary confinement inside the prison. http://apne.ws/2hb44NT
for their cross-format package on Dakota Access pipeline protesters defiantly digging in for the winter, including a 360-degree video of protesters holding a water ceremony, photo galleries, satellite images and text.
Text: http://apne.ws/2h3nsKj
Video: http://apne.ws/2gUACMo
for being first with the news that Kenya had deported a South Sudanese rebel spokesman back to South Sudan, where colleagues and human rights activists fear for his life. http://bit.ly/2fFtOlA
for showing that a New York state economic report meant to demonstrate the state's booming growth was illustrated with an 8-year-old photo showing construction cranes in South Africa. http://nyp.st/2t5coqb
for an exclusive report on the escalating conflict between drug traffickers and authorities in southern Spain, including unprecedented interviews with gang members operating in one of Europe’s main entry points for hashish from North Africa. https://bit.ly/2HsiEMl
for an exclusive interview with Adam Crapser, who was deported to South Korea four decades after his adoption by an American couple. Crapser, forcibly separated from his wife, children and friends in America, described his landmark lawsuit against the Seoul government and a private adoption agency in a case that highlights the shaky legal status of possibly thousands of Korean adoptees. https://bit.ly/2FKtGP1
AP visual journalists in the Mexican town of Taxco for an annual Holy Week procession pivoted quickly to cover the brutal mob killing of a woman allegedly involved in the abduction and killing of a young girl.Read more
for being minutes ahead of other international news organizations with word that South Korea's president had been impeached, then following up with contextual stories no other agency had. http://bit.ly/2hsmzeG
for tenaciously pursuing and obtaining a list of donors to new Gov. Doug Burgum's inaugural, and reporting that the majority of them came from the oil and energy sectors that play a big role in North Dakota’s economy. http://bit.ly/2iKnTg7
for an all-formats exclusive that documented the reunion of a child soldier and his mother years after she grieved his reported battlefield death. http://bit.ly/2uvyaSP
for breaking the news that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum's travel was being audited, about a month after he was criticized for attending the Super Bowl as a guest of a utility operating in his state. https://trib.in/2GomtFe