Best international reporting in the print medium showing a concern for the human condition
AWARD YEAR: 2007
AWARD NAME: The Madeline Dane Ross Award 2007
RECIPIENT: Lydia Polgreen
AFFILIATION: The New York Times
HONORED WORK: “New Questions, New Answers in Africa”
West African bureau chief Lydia Pol- green captures the geo-political dimen- sions and daily grind of the conti- nent’s complex story and human drama as well as any reporter we have seen. Polgreen goes to all corners, known and far, near but remote. More often than not, she brings you there to taste the dust, hear the cries and even—in rare instances—share the tri- umphs. She gets to the essence of things with well-told stories about col- lapsing states and cultures. You can feel the anger as she gets to the sources responsible and puts the questions that have to be put. Pol- green discovers for us. She takes the return paths and the old paths, and brings new eyes to the old routes. And she confronts the villains and becomes the rod that expresses the questions those they op- press cannot fathom to ask except in their rare dreams of hope.
Citation for Excellence:
Keith Epstein and Geri Smith
BusinessWeek
“The Ugly Side of Microlending”
Daniel Michaels
The Wall Street Journal
“Nighmare in Nigeria”