Past Winners of the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics

A team of Associated Press reporters won the 2023 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics for their work documenting the Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in March of 2022.

For almost three weeks, video journalist Mystyslav Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and video producer Vasilisa Stepanenko were the last international journalists on the ground documenting the atrocities committed as Russian forces closed in on Mariupol. With AP journalist Lori Hinnant, the team brought the shocking new realities of the war in Ukraine to an international audience and put pressure on Russia to open humanitarian corridors.

2023 Finalists

• Tony Plohetski, Austin-American Statesman & KVUE-TV. Investigative reporter Tony Plohetski was the first journalist in the county to obtain video that dramatically changed the public’s understanding of how police responded to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed. According to the nomination, Plohetski and team first had to determine whether they had a public duty to publish the video and then navigate layers of editorial and ethical decisions in shaping its release.
• Brett Murphy, ProPublica. Investigative reporter Brett Murphy showed how hundreds of police officers, prosecutors and dispatchers have been taught to divine the guilt or innocence of 911 callers using a junk science focused on analyzing word choice. According to the nomination, Murphy and team had to consider how to fairly portray people convicted of horrible crimes, how to respectfully convey the substance of jarring and graphic 911 calls, how to portray the founder of the training, as well as questions of who to name and hold accountable.
• Lynzy Billing, ProPublica. Freelancer Lynzy Billing traveled to more than 30 sites in Afghanistan to track down and count civilian deaths at the hands of Afghan soldiers funded, trained and directed by the CIA. According to the nomination, virtually every source Billing spoke to did so at personal risk, with Billing speaking not only with survivors, witnesses and local doctors, but also Afghan commandos and American special operation forces soldiers.
• Melanie Payne, Adam Walser, Kylie McGivern, Jackie Callaway, Randy Wright, Matt McGlashen, WFTS/ABC Action News. This one-hour special investigated the sharp uptick in hate groups and hate incidents in Florida in an effort to equip their audience with the resources needed to identify, report and combat hate. According to the nomination, their one-hour special sparked community conversation while at the same preventing hate groups from gaining exposure.

Jessica Contrera, a reporter at The Washington Post, won the 2022 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics from the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for her stories on child sex trafficking in the U.S.

The Shadid Award judging committee lauded the extraordinary thoughtfulness and care Contrera demonstrated in working with survivors of sex trafficking and showing how highly touted anti-trafficking laws are not being enforced.

2022 Finalists

• Ali Fowle, Drew Ambrose, Aun Qi Koh, Andy Mees, David Boyle, Jenni Henderson, Nick Olle, Liz Gooch and Sharon Roobol, Al Jazeera (101 East). Al Jazeera’s team produced the first longform report about the protests in Myanmar after the military took control in February 2021. According to the nomination, “both pieces of longform television journalism required careful and considered engagement with an array of interviewees and sources with Myanmar.”
• A.J. Lagoe, Brandon Stahl, Steve Eckert, Gary Knox, KARE 11. In their investigative series, “The Gap: Failure to Treat, Failure to Protect,” the KARE 11 team uncovered that criminal suspects deemed too mentally ill to stand trial in Minnesota are often released without adequate treatment due to gaps in state law. According to the nomination, “by shining a light with empathy and objectivity on issues and people too often ignored and holding institutions and those in power to account, KARE’s investigation prompted potentially life-saving reforms.”
• Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, Paul Kiel, Justin Elliott, James Bandler, Patricia Callahan, Robert Faturechi, Ellis Simani, Doris Burke, Agnes Chang and Lucas Waldron, ProPublica. In their reporting on a massive collection of IRS data, “The Secret IRS Files,” ProPublica reporters revealed the systemic unfairness in the tax system. According to the nomination, this series of deeply reported investigations raised “urgent questions at a time when wealth inequality has become a national crisis.”

Investigative reporters Margie Mason and Robin McDowell of the Associated Press have won the 2021 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics from the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for their investigative series on palm oil labor abuses.

Mason and McDowell went to extraordinary lengths to interview more than 130 current and former palm oil workers in Indonesia and Malaysia, capturing the stories of the vulnerable people producing one of the most ubiquitous commodities on the planet. They chronicled instances of rape, trafficking, slavery, child labor and routine exposure to toxic agrochemicals. Drawing on their expertise in supply chain tracking, the reporters also traced these abuses back to some of the biggest names in food and cosmetics and to banks funding this booming industry.

2021 Finalists

• Agnes Chang, Adriana Gallardo, Loren Holmes, Kyle Hopkins, Marc Lester, Anne Raup, Nadia Sussman and Michelle Theriault Boots, Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica. In their series, “Unheard,” this team of journalists and photographers gathered the stories and created portraits of people affected by sexual assault in Alaska. According to the nomination, the project represents a “new kind of collaborative journalism rooted in trust and respect for 29 Alaskans who have stepped forward to share their stories.”

• Amy Silverman, Beena Raghavendran, Maya Miller, Shoshana Gordon, Alex Devoid, Mamta Popat, Rebecca Monteleone (University of Toledo),Arizona Daily Star and ProPublica. “State of Denial: Inside Arizona’s Division of Developmental Disabilities” investigated the failings of the State of Arizona’s services for residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Their nomination describes how they included the voices of those with disabilities and published a “plain language” version of the story to make it accessible to those with disabilities.

• Mara Rose Williams, Eric Adler, Mike Hendricks, Cortlynn Stark and Shelly Yang, Kansas City Star. In “The Truth in Black and White: An Apology from the Kansas City Star,” Star reporters did a deep dive into the 140-year history of the paper, unveiling a legacy of disrespecting, disregarding and disenfranchising the city’s Black citizens. In making themselves the target of their own investigation, the reporters sought to mark a new beginning. Their nomination reads: “we hope, over time, to set things right, in ways both substantive and symbolic.”

• Amy Brittain, Reena Flores and Bishop Sand, Washington Post. In the seven-part podcast “Canary: The Washington Post Investigates,” reporters explore the decisions of two women to share their accounts of sexual assault and the consequences of those choices. According to the nomination, the team worked hard to take advantage of the intimacy of audio storytelling without sensationalizing the pain of their sources.

“The Quiet Rooms” by Jodi S. Cohen and Lakeidra Chavis of ProPublica and Jennifer Smith Richards of the Chicago Tribune won the 2020 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics.

Through careful work with vulnerable and traumatized children, Cohen, Chavis and Richards documented the unlawful use of seclusion and restraint in Illinois public schools, prompting state officials to impose an emergency ban on seclusion within a day of publication.

2020 Finalists

• Louise Donovan and Nasibo Kabale, The Fuller Project for International Reporting and The Telegraph. “Dumped babies are just the tip of the iceberg: The deadly consequences of curbing reproductive rights” was an investigative report on how Kenya’s restricted access to prenatal care, contraception and reproductive services is leaving women in increasingly desperate situations. According to the nomination, the reporters had to highlight the government’s repeated failure to provide women’s healthcare without shaming, blaming or exposing the women who had abandoned their babies.
• Brian M. Rosenthal, New York Times. “Taken for a Ride” was a five-part investigation that exposed one of the worst predatory lending schemes in the United States since the housing market crash, including stories on reckless loans, corrupt officials, Chicago cabbies, New York’s Taxi King and driver suicides. According to its nomination, The Times navigated a series of tough decisions about suicide and victim protection while also making a conscious effort to avoid sensationalizing the story.
• Christy Gutowski, Chicago Tribune. “AJ Freund case shows lapses in protection by child welfare workers” and “Two troubled people met at a McHenry County courthouse in 2012. Today, they stand charged in the murder of their 5-year-old son” chronicled how Illinois state child-welfare officials repeatedly failed to protect a 5-year-old boy who was eventually murdered by his parents. According to the nomination, Gutowski grappled with ethical issues surrounding this emotionally very difficult story such as whether to name the boy’s siblings or publish disturbing photos.

“Perversion of Justice” by Julie K. Brown and Emily Michot of the Miami Herald has won the 2019 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics from the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This three-part series investigated how Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy hedge fund manager, struck a secret deal with U.S. prosecutor Alexander Acosta — now the Secretary of Labor — to cover up his crimes of molesting and sexually assaulting scores of underage girls.

2019 Finalists

• Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza, Associated Press. “The Innocents: How U.S. immigration policy punishes migrant children” was a year-long investigation into the Trump administration’s family separation policy and included stories on tender age shelters, alleged abuse in shelters, the abuse of a Honduran teen, adoption of migrant children, the scope of the migrant kids program, the billion-dollar industry of detaining immigrant children, and the waiving of FBI checks for staff at a teen migrant camp. According to the nomination, this AP team prioritized the welfare of the children they interviewed while also “[holding] those in power accountable for immigration policies that are punishing the most vulnerable.”
• Hannah Dreier, ProPublica. “A Betrayal” tells the story of a teenager and MS-13 gang member who became a government informant, only to face death threats and deportation after federal agents reneged on a promise to protect him. According to the nominating letter, Dreier “balanced the imperative to expose bad policies and abuses of power against the danger to a teenager’s life.”
• David Jackson, Jennifer Smith Richards, Gary Marx, Juan Perez, Jr., Chicago Tribune. “Betrayed” is an investigative series that exposed Chicago schools’ failure to protect students from sexual abuse and assault. According to the nominating letter, Jackson and team “applied journalistic standards honed over years of investigating sexual violence against vulnerable people” to “for the first time [quantify] the staggering prevalence of sexual violence against students in a large U.S. school district.”
• Maggie Michael, Nariman El-Mofty, Maad al-Zikry, Associated Press. Throughout 2018, these reporters investigated the atrocities occurring during Yemen’s war, publishing “Yemeni prisoners say Emirati officers sexually torture them,” “Ex-inmates: Torture rife in prisons run by Yemen rebels,” “Children as young as 10 fight, kill and die in Yemen’s war” and “AP investigation: Food aid stolen as Yemen starves.” According to the nomination letter, the AP reporters “braved dangers and faced tough ethical questions as they fought to tell stories that the world heard from no other source.”

Brian Grow, John Shiffman and the Reuters team won the 2018 Shadid Award. “The Body Trade” exposes the industry that dissects, rents and sells the bodies of the recently deceased.

During interviews with family members of those who had donated their bodies, Grow “set aside the instincts as an intrepid reporter and relied instead on his own ethical compass, showing the families his respect for their loss and his understanding of the difficult choices many of them made,” the nominating editor wrote.

2018 Finalists

• Kristen Gelineau, Wong Maye-E and Rishabh Jain, Associated Press. “Rohingya Methodically Raped by Myanmar’s Armed Forces” is a look at atrocities documented through interviews done in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. Gelineau “faced a constant internal battle between journalistic objectivity and humanity,” a colleague wrote.
• Maggie Michael and Maad al-Zikry, Associated Press. “Inside Yemen’s Secret Prisons” found evidence of torture and other abuses in secret prisons across southern Yemen, run by the United Arab Emirates, an ally in the U.S. fight against al-Qaida. “The choices that our journalists face on the ground are difficult, but we were proud of the innovative thinking on the part of Michael and al-Zikry, as they figured out ways to keep sources safe and innovate methods to still come up with compelling storytelling,” the AP said in its nomination.
• Mike Rezendes, The Boston Globe. “Father, My Father” explored the pain and neglect experienced by unacknowledged sons and daughters of Catholic priests around the world. “Rezendes spent months gently educating these men and women that their stories would have vastly more impact if they allowed their names and life stories to be used — as long as they discussed their choice with family members in advance,” Rezendes’ editor wrote.
• Gerry Shih and Han Guan Ng, Associated Press. “Digital Police State Shackles Chinese Minority” details the repression and surveillance of Uigher communities in western China, as well as their recruitment by extremist groups in Syria and elsewhere. “Shih and Ng were exceedingly mindful of the potential risks people in this region face and sought to the greatest extent possible not to cause harm in the process of uncovering this important – and often underreported – story,” according to the AP nomination.

The winner of the 2017 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics is Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer for his reporting on U.S. private prisons. He was presented with the award in a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 19, 2017.

2017 Finalists

• Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer, who wrestled with the problem of journalistic deception when he spent four months undercover as a prison guard in a corporate-run Louisiana prison.
• The Spotlight team at the Boston Globe, which made sophisticated judgments in choosing when to identify victims and accused abusers while investigating sex abuse at New England private schools.
• In her series “Venezuela Undone,” Associated Press reporter Hannah Dreier balanced journalistic objectivity with her human instinct to help victims as she showed the human cost of Venezuela’s crumbling infrastructure.
• Kathy Gannon’s “Honor Bound” series for the Associated Presstook fairness and balance to an unusual level by seeking to understand the motives of men in some parts of the world who torture and murder women.
• The Palm Beach Postchose public awareness of a not widely recognized problem over individual privacy when it devoted its front page to the photos of every person in Palm Beach County who had died from a heroin-related overdose in 2015.
• In her report published in The Guardian, reporter Lauren Wolfe had to weigh whether publishing a story would do more harm than good as she brought international attention to the plight of young girls being kidnapped and raped in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Associated Press won the 2016 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics for reporting that resulted in the freeing of 2,000 slave laborers used by the fishing industry in Southeast Asia.

While investigating an Asian “slave island” that provides fish for the American market, AP reporters Martha Mendoza, Margie Mason, Robin McDowell and Esther Htusan realized that any slave who talked with them faced possible execution. The reporters and their editors decided to rescue their sources from the island before publishing the explosive story.

“There is nothing unusual about journalists protecting their sources from discovery,” Jack Mitchell, chair of the judging committee, said. “But journalists usually minimize involvement beyond that. The AP defied convention by taking responsibility for the welfare and safety of the slaves, who were willing to face death to tell their stories. The journalists got the men to safety before publishing the stories.”

The AP team was chosen for the award over four other finalists who also demonstrated exceptional commitment to ethical journalism last year. They were:

• A team of journalists from McClatchy newspapers who took care to preserve the medical privacy of victims while exposing the human toll of America’s Cold War-era nuclear energy programs.
• ProPublica and NPR, who took similar care in protecting the privacy and dignity of sick and injured employees as their reporters revealed how states across the country are curtailing workers compensation programs.
• Reporters from the Columbus Dispatch, who also dealt with privacy issues in reporting on suicides as a public health issue, while considering the probability that reporting on suicides might lead to copycat attempts.
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Gina Barton, who faced an array of ethical challenges reopening a 40-year-old unsolved murder case that, fairly or unfairly, might reflect badly on individuals and institutions.

The 2015 Shadid award goes to a team from The Chicago Tribune, whose revelations about serious abuses in Illinois’ juvenile justice system brought about reforms and led to the resignation of the director of the state Department of Children and Family Services.

The team includes David Jackson, Gary Marx and Duaa Eldeib, reporters for the Chicago Tribune, and Anthony Souffle, photographer for the Chicago Tribune.

The Associated Press was awarded the 2014 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics for its reporting on the disappearance of Robert Levinson, an American businessman.

AP reporters Adam Goldman, Matt Apuzzo and Ted Bridis proved through their reporting that Levinson, who went missing while in Iran, was employed by the CIA, even as the agency denied it to the White House, the FBI and Congress.

The AP held the story for three years until it was confident it would not cause harm to Levinson or threaten national security.

2014 Finalists

• ProPublica and reporter Michael Grabell for reporting on the plight of temporary workers in American companies.
• Stephanie Mencimer for her story in the Washington Monthly verifying the truthfulness of Kellogg, Brown & Root, the defense contractor, when it denied that employees in Iraq had gang-raped a female employee.
• Minnesota Public Radio for documenting child abuse by priests in the St. Paul diocese, which had held itself up as a model for other dioceses to follow.
• USA Today for its examination of “mass killings” in the United States.

The 2013 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics was awarded to Mark Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for his remarkable series on the science of gender.

Johnson’s work engages the reader with personal and moving stories of people who deal every day with issues of gender identity — both their own and others’. Based on extensive scientific research, probing interviews and beautiful writing, Johnson shows both the scientific and the human face of the complex issue of gender in our ever-changing society.

From 2010-2013, our annual ethics award was restricted to nominees from Wisconsin. Beginning in 2012, the award was named in honor of Anthony Shadid. In 2014, we began accepting nominations from journalists around the world.

The 2012 and inaugural Anthony Shadid Award of Journalism Ethics was awarded to Steven T. Lovejoy of The Journal Times.

Lovejoy, a veteran of the newspaper industry, was recognized for his lifelong practice of applying the highest ethical standards to his work.

Despite the immediate challenges pressing the newspaper industry, Lovejoy remained true to the principles of ethical journalism, tackling tough issues and engaging citizens and community leaders alike to work towards positive change.

From 2010-2013, our annual ethics award was restricted to nominees from Wisconsin. Beginning in 2012, the award was named in honor of Anthony Shadid. In 2014, we began accepting nominations from journalists around the world.

The 2011 Wisconsin Commitment to Journalism Ethics Award was presented to Dan Flannery of The Post Crescent.

Flannery oversaw the day-to-day editorial operations of The Post Crescent and its website. He has been lauded by colleagues for revitalizing the op-ed and editorial pages of the paper. Dedicated to building strong relationships with community members, Flannery doubled the number of daily commentaries and seeks out frequent guest columns for the paper to ensure that The Post Crescent reflects the diversity of voices in the Fox Valley.

From 2010-2013, our annual ethics award was restricted to nominees from Wisconsin. In 2012, the award was named in honor of Anthony Shadid. In 2014, we began accepting nominations from journalists around

The 2010 Wisconsin Commitment to Journalism Ethics Award was presented to Tom Bier of WISC-TV and Channel3000.com.

With almost 40 years of tenure, Bier is regarded by many as the dean of Madison journalists. His colleagues nominated him for the award.

From 2010-2013, our annual ethics award was restricted to nominees from Wisconsin. Beginning in 2012, the award was named in honor of Anthony Shadid. In 2014, we began accepting nominations from journalists around the world.