WASHINGTON, D.C., April 24, 2010 — A gutsy, collaborative series by four European news outlets about toxic waste dumping in Africa and a surprising exposé by a freelancer on payoffs by U.S. military contractors to the Taliban won the 2010 Daniel Pearl Awards for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting.

The winners were announced tonight at the sixth Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The Pearl Awards are presented by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C.

Kjersti Knudsson and Synnove Bakke of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. and Jeroen Trommelen of the Netherlands’ de Volkskrant share the 2010 Daniel Pearl Award for “Trafigura’s Toxic Waste Dump.” (Jan Gunnar Furuly)The winners are:

* Kjersti Knudsson and Synnove Bakke, Norwegian Broadcasting Corp.; David Leigh, The Guardian; Meirion Jones and Liz MacKean, BBC Newsnight; Jeroen Trommelen, de Volkskrant (Western Europe), for “Trafigura’s Toxic Waste Dump,” which exposed how a powerful offshore oil trader tried to cover up the poisoning of 30,000 West Africans.

* Aram Roston, The Nation (United States), for “How the US Funds the Taliban,” on of how Pentagon military contractors in Afghanistan routinely pay millions of dollars in protection money to the Taliban to move supplies to U.S. troops. The project was sponsored by The Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.

In addition to the two winners, the judges awarded a special Certificate of Recognition to T. Christian Miller, ProPublica; Doug Smith and Francine Orr, Los Angeles Times; and Pratap Chatterjee, freelance (United States), for their impressive series “Disposable Army,” on how injured civilian contractors working for the U.S. military have been abandoned by Washington.

The Daniel Pearl Awards are unique among journalism prizes in that they were created specifically to honor cross-border investigative reporting. This year’s biennial competition attracted an impressive 85 entries from 40 countries. An international panel of five judges selected seven finalists, from which they chose one U.S. winner and one international winner.

Each set of winners will receive US$5,000. Each set of finalists and the certificate honoree will receive US$1,000.

The judges were impressed by the scope and depth of the various entries, which showcased stories from Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia, as well as from North America and Western Europe. “The quality of reporting shows that investigative journalism is alive and well around the world,” said ICIJ Director David E. Kaplan. “This was an extraordinary set of stories, done by an extraordinary array of journalists,” added Center for Public Integrity Executive Director Bill Buzenberg.

Four other finalists were named by the judges:

* Hugo Alconada Mon, La Nación (Argentina), for his revealing series “The Suitcase Scandal,” on the secret funding by Venezuela’s Chavez government of the presidential campaign of Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

* Per Hermanrud, TV4 Sweden (Sweden), for his disturbing documentary “Down at any Cost,” an undercover look at how many of the world’s down feathers are painfully plucked from living birds and sold to unsuspecting consumers.

* Syed Nazakat Hussain, The Week magazine (India), for his powerful series “India’s Secret Torture Chambers” and “Top Secret,” on India’s secret chain of Guantanamo-like prisons and rendition program for kidnapping terrorism suspects.

* Roman Shleynov, Stanimir Vaglenov, Aleksandar Bozinovski, Dumitru Lazur, Vlad Lavrov, and Stevan Dojcinovic of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (Eastern Europe) for their revealing series “Document Dilemma,” a six-country investigation into the black market for visas and passports.

Formerly the ICIJ Award, the Pearl prize was renamed in 2008 after Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was slain by Pakistani militants in 2002. Selections this year were made by a distinguished international panel of judges:

* Sheila Coronel, director, Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, Columbia University; former executive director, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

* David E. Kaplan, director, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; former chief investigative correspondent, U.S. News & World Report.

* Ron Nixon, reporter, The New York Times, Washington bureau; former training director for the U.S.-based Investigative Reporters and Editors.

* Gerardo Reyes, Miami-based correspondent and columnist, El Nuevo Herald. Reyes covers his native Colombia and other Latin American countries.

* Margo Smit, director, Dutch-Flemish Association of Investigative Journalists (VVOJ), University of Groningen journalism teacher, and TV news producer.