WASHINGTON April 15, 2008 — The Center for Public Integrity has won three 2007 Sigma Delta Chi awards in journalism for three of its investigations. Collateral Damage: Human Rights and U.S. Military Aid after 9/11 won first place in the online investigative reporting independent category; Wasting Away: Superfund's Toxic Legacy won first place in the online non-deadline reporting independent category; and States of Disclosure: Tracking the private interests of public officials won in the online public service in journalism independent category. With these three awards, the Center has now won a total of eleven SPJ awards since its founding in 1989.

“To receive three distinguished awards from SPJ simultaneously represents tremendous recognition of our investigative work,” said Center Executive Director Bill Buzenberg. “I’m very proud of each of these investigative projects and their importance at a state, national, and international level. The Center for Public Integrity is one of very few investigative journalism institutions capable of this credible, resourceful, and extremely high quality work.”

The Collateral Damage project was led by the Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and took more than a year of reporting and research. The project examined the billions of dollars of U.S. military aid spent in the post-9/11 era, including thousands of pages of foreign lobbying records, U.S. military statistics, and reports. The project included a comprehensive database of U.S. military assistance, foreign lobbying expenditures, and human rights abuses, and highlighted questionable foreign allegiances, foreign lobby ties, lack of accountability, and the controversial issues involving extraordinary renditions, torture, and interrogations.

The SPJ Judges said that the Center’s Collateral Damage project “set a new standard for what can and should be reported on the Internet. This vast, clear-eyed report details what many Americans have long suspected about recent governmental policy, and that it became source material for any number of other nationwide news organizations speaks to its clarity, relevance, and scope.” One SPJ judge noted that “putting the Center’s report alongside the other entries received was like asking the local Pop Warner league to be judged against the New York Giants.”

The Center’s Wasting Away project, which revealed the beleaguered state of the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to clean up Superfund sites nationwide, also includes a comprehensive list of which ones were deemed the most toxic. With a dozen investigative stories, the project also includes a complete searchable directory of all 1,624 Superfund sites, providing details about the polluters and pollutants for each site. Wasting Away represents one of the most comprehensive examinations of the Superfund program, and scrutinizes why the backlog of sites needing cleanup is growing while funding is dwindling.

SPJ judges described Wasting Away as “well-researched, skillfully written, and smartly presented as an Internet package, and a well-conceived and well-executed report that balances the heart of journalism — text — with just enough multimedia flash.”

The focus of the Center’s States of Disclosure project was the creation of a comprehensive 43-question survey that ranked all 50 states’ legislative and executive branches personal financial disclosure laws. The online rankings and state document warehouse information provide the public with information not often made easily accessible about the private interests of their public officials and potential conflicts of interest.

“One of the most important services any organization can provide is making as transparent as possible the deeds of our public officials,” said the SPJ judges. “The Center had done just that . . . the work is impressive not only for its breadth, but its depth. It is a deep and rich work that may be intimidating due to its size, but one that’s must-reading.”

The Society first honored six individuals for contributions to journalism in 1932, which started the Sigma Delta Chi Awards. The current program began in 1939, when the organization awarded the first Distinguished Service Awards, which later became the Sigma Delta Chi Awards. The awards will be presented July 11 during the annual Sigma Delta Chi Awards banquet at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The Center’s Collateral Damage project was made possible by a grant from the JEHT Foundation; Wasting Away by funding from the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund; and States of Disclosure through a grant from the Ford Foundation. In addition to these funders, the Center also thanks the Morton K. & Jane Blaustein Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John D. Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John & Florence Newman Foundation, the Popplestone Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Scherman Foundation, the Nell Williams Family Foundation, and many others for their support of our important work.

All of the Center’s award-winning investigative journalism can be found at www.publicintegrity.org.

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