IRE Announces 2007 Winners

Two stories dealing with Chinese imports were among the winners of the coveted 2007 IRE Medals, the top awards given by Investigative Reporters and Editors. Winners were announced Tuesday. The other two entries receiving top honors dealt with mistreatment of veterans at Walter Reed Hospital by Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull, and an investigation into a 43-year-old murder case of two African American men in Mississippi that led to the prosecution of one of the perpetrators. It was produced by a team from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and MSNBC.
One of the Chinese import stories also captured the first annual Barlett and Steele Investigative Business Award offered last year by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.
“A Toxic Pipeline” traced the poisoning deaths of victims in Panama to cough syrup and toothpaste made in China. The New York Times team which completed the project was led by reporters Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker.
The other import story by Loretta Tofani of The Salt Lake Tribune showed how mundane products used by Americans and made in China can have deadly consequences for the workers who make them, complete with bogus safety audits and false record keeping. For a complete list of winners, go to http://www.ire.org/contest/07winners.html