Hannah Dreier
Best newspaper, news service or digital reporting from abroad
AWARD DATE: 2016
AWARD NAME: 01 The Hal Boyle Award
AWARD RECIPIENTS: Hannah Dreier
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: The Associated Press
AWARD HONORED WORK: “Venezuela Undone”
AWARD SPONSOR: Norman Pearlstine in memory of Jerry Flint
In insightful, enduring, and richly detailed reports, Dreier chronicled the unraveling of a nation. Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis is not the story of a people overlooked by progress; it is the story of a once-prosperous society, with the largest oil reserves in the world, driven by its leaders to the brink of starvation. Dreier bore witness to a collapse of middle-class life — food riots, collapsing health care, the dawn of mob justice –and then unearthed its origins, a combination of mismanagement, political delusion and corruption. Throughout, she also exposed a less visible realm of ruin: the loss of empathy among neighbors, the corrosion of the soul. Her efforts had consequences. U.S. senators called for sanctions against corrupt officials. Readers donated money to pay for a child’s medical treatments. At the same time, she received threats from Venezuelan intelligence officers and government supporters. Hannah Dreier’s brave and revealing reporting exemplifies the legacy of Hal Boyle and the best of foreign correspondence. It is not only a rendering of recent history but also a warning for the future.
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Citation Recipients: Ben Hubbard, Mark Mazzetti, Carlotta Gall, Scott Shane and Nicholas Kulish
Affiliation: The New York Times
Honored Work: “Secrets of the Kingdom”
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