Moni Basu of CNN has been selected as the winner of this year’s Joseph Galloway Award for Distinguished Reporting, the top prize in the annual Military Reporters & Editors journalism contest.
High-security prisoners in a crowded Iraqi jailhouse remain still as soldiers from Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, search their room in Tikrit, Iraq on Friday, March 14, 2008. Sheila Vemmer of Army Times was named the winner in MRE's photography category.
“This award goes to the story or series of stories that the judges recognize as the best in military reporting from the previous year,” said MRE president Ron Martz.
The judges called Basu’s eight-part series titled “Chaplain Turner’s War,” which ran in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2008, “quiet and moving. Her portrayal of the burdens of war, both emotional and physical, unfolds through the story of a 35-year-old chaplain and the soldiers of Bravo Company…She reports sensitively on the damage war does to soldiers’ marriages and to their faith, even to the faith of a chaplain.”
Basu will receive a $500 cash prize sponsored by the McClatchy Company and an engraved plaque.
Also honored by the judges was Jenn Rowell of The Montgomery Advertiser for her series of stories on officer training at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. Rowell was selected as the winner of the second annual James Crawley Award, which recognizes the best in regional reporting. The award is named after the late James Crawley, one of the founders of MRE and a former president who died in 2008.
This year’s awards recognized the best stories from the calendar year 2008 on the military, veterans’ affairs, national defense, and homeland security in print, photography, broadcasting and online media.
Other winners include:
(1) Overseas coverage, print: Betsy Hiel, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,large market; James Kitfield, National Journal, print, small market.
(2) Domestic coverage, print: Tom Infield, Philadelphia Inquirer, large market; Sydney Freedberg, Jr., National Journal, small market
(3) Photography: Sheila Vemmer, Army Times, large market.
(4) Television: “Dan Rather Reports,” large market; WSAW-TV, Wasau, Wisc., small market.
(5) Online: Forbes.com
(6) Radio: Anna Sussman, KALW, Public Radio.
Read the complete list of winners, honorable mentions, and the judges’ comments.
To view this year’s winning entries, go to http://www.militaryreporters.org/winner09.html
Congratulations to all the winners!
