James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times have won the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for their coverage of the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program.
The award, worth $25,000, is given annually by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The prize was created in 1991 to honor journalism that discloses excessive secrecy, impropriety and mismanagement. The awards were officially presented Tuesday night in Cambridge, Mass.
The center also presented a special award to Nicholas D. Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for The Times, for his reporting on genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Mr. Kristof was cited for reporting that led to "saving many thousands of lives."
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"The judges felt that, in a field of hugely important investigations, the revelation of systemic domestic spying by the government was the most important," said Alex S. Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center. "They wanted to send a message that this kind of reporting is essential to our democracy."
Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times, said: "Jim and Eric performed an extraordinary feat of reporting that has provoked an important national debate about the balance between security and liberty. But their work has also set off an intensive leak investigation carrying the threat of legal reprisals. So besides being a gratifying acknowledgment of professional achievement, this award also constitutes a welcome vote of moral support."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/national/nationalspecial3/16goldsmith.html