The Center for Public Integrity was honored with two prizes Saturday night from the the Online News Association (ONA) during the group’s annual awards banquet in Los Angeles, California.
An examination of how financial companies, private vendors, and corrections agencies increasingly charge high fees and shift the costs of basic necessities onto families of prison inmates won the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, small category.
The two-part series also featured a 23-minute documentary produced by multimedia editor Eleanor Bell in collaboration with reporter Daniel Wagner.
A global collaboration examining the World Bank’s failure to follow its own rules for protecting vulnerable populations won the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, large category. “Evicted & Abandoned” was reported by more than 50 journalists in 21 countries through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of the Center for Public Integrity. The ICIJ teamed with the Huffington Post, the GroundTruth Project, the Investigative Fund, and more than 20 other news organizations.
ProPublica and NPR also won the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, large category for "Insult to Injury: The Demolition of Workers' Comp" which looked at the decline of workers' compensation benefits in states around the country, and the subsequent shifting of costs of workplace accidents to taxpayers.
The awards mark the second straight year of ONA honors for the Center for Public Integrity. In 2014, the Center won the award for General Excellence in Journalism, small category for digital storytelling and use of technology. The Center won two awards out of a total of seven finalists for awards in six categories.
Launched in 2000, the Online Journalism Awards (OJA) recognize excellence in digital journalism, with a focus on independent, community, nonprofit, academic and major media.
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners.