Center for Public Integrity awarded $3 million grant

The grant announcement continues a run of significant recognition for the Center’s work. In recent days, five separate Center investigations have been honored as part of three prestigious journalism competitions.

The Center was a winner in three categories of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers “Best in Business” competition, while taking a first place and a second place prize in the Association of Health Care Journalists’ awards for excellence and a first prize in the Overseas Press Club Awards.

In the business journalism contest, the Center was a winner in the international category for smaller publications for “Rape, murder, famine — and $2.1 million for K Street PR,” which detailed how Washington spinmeisters earned huge paychecks to help one of the world’s most murderous governments polish its image on Capitol Hill.

The Center also won the technology category for smaller publications with “Rich people have access to high-speed Internet; many poor people still don’t.” The multimedia project showed that there is still a deep divide in America regarding access to high-speed Internet connections.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ “Panama Papers” project took top prize in the banking/finance category for large publications. In the Overseas Press Club contest, the “Panama Papers” investigation won the The Malcolm Forbes Award for best international business news reporting in newspapers, news service or digital.

The press club award marked the Panama Papers project’s sixth major American journalism prize. ICIJ was a project of the Center for Public Integrity when the series was written but the two organizations have since separated.

In the health journalism contest, a Center for Public Integrity collaboration with The Associated Press — The “Politics of Pain” — was awarded first place in the health policy category. The project investigated the politics behind the ongoing opioid epidemic with a unique look at how drug makers and their allies sought to thwart steps intended to combat opioid abuse.

Another Center for Public Integrity investigation, on the insurance industry’s ties to state regulators, was awarded second place in the business category. The insurance project, “Drink, dinners, junkets and jobs: how the insurance industry courts state commissioners,” illustrated the cozy relationships, revolving doors and financial connections between regulators and industry.

To support the Center for Public Integrity and independent nonprofit investigative journalism, please visit www.publicintegrity.org

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