Clockwise from upper left: Jake Spring, Stephen Eisenhammer and Ueslei Marcelino
Best reporting in any medium on Latin America
AWARD DATE: 2021
AWARD NAME: The Robert Spiers Benjamin Award 2021
AWARD RECIPIENTS: Jake Spring, Stephen Eisenhammer, Ueslei Marcelino and Reuters colleagues
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: Reuters
AWARD HONORED WORK: “Brazilian Rainforest”
AWARD SPONSOR: Laurie Hays
The seven-part package is an effective blend of investigative reporting, vivid writing, data analysis and explanatory journalism, enhanced by compelling graphics. It not only exposed Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s signature response to destruction of the Amazon rainforest — sending in the army — as a costly failure. The series also documented his work to incapacitate the country’s system for fining environmental offenders. Reuters journalists delivered a nuanced portrayal of the Amazon’s indigenous tribes as they choose between conservation and development. Like the runner- up for this award, the Reuters series underscores the outsized impact that Brazil’s management of its rainforest has on the global challenge of climate change.
Links to the winning work:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/brazil-environment-military/
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/climate-un-amazon-tipping-point/
https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATE-CHANGE/BRAZIL-CARBON/nmovabezapa/
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-brazil-environment-fines-insight-idUKKCN2E80YU
https://graphics.reuters.com/GLOBAL-DEFORESTATION/RAINFOREST/klvykzrbxvg/
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/brazil-indigenous-kuarup/
Citation for Excellence:
Jessica Brice and Michael Smith
Bloomberg BusinessWeek with support from the Pulitzer Center
“The Amazon Is Fast Approaching a Point of No Return”