Best newspaper or wire service reporting from abroad
AWARD YEAR: 2005
AWARD NAME: The Hal Boyle Award 2005
RECIPIENT: Hannah Allam, Tom Lasseter and the late Yasser Salihee
AFFILIATION: Knight Ridder
HONORED WORK: “Iraq: America’s Failing War”
The Knight Ridder team was far ahead of other news organizations, reporting in February 2005 that deadly infighting among Iraq’s Shiites and Sunnis threatened to erupt into civil war. An invaluable asset was that two of the three reporters spoke Arabic. The high degree of personal risk was obvious, as evidenced by the death of Salihee at the hands of U.S. troops manning a checkpoint. The judges were impressed that Knight Ridder, despite its financial pressures, maintained its commitment to the story.
Citation for Excellence:
Paisley Dodds
The Associated Press
“Guantanamo Exposed”