Best reporting in any medium on Latin America
AWARD YEAR: 2022
AWARD NAME: The Robert Spiers Benjamin Award 2022
RECIPIENT: Terrence McCoy and Washington Post Staff
AFFILIATION: The Washington Post
HONORED WORK: “The Amazon, Undone”
Terrence McCoy and his team produced a courageously reported, beautifully written and compellingly presented six-part series showing that the destruction of the Amazon is approaching the point of no return. The stories combine on-the-ground reporting with data journalism and satellite imagery. We learn how beef illegally raised in the Amazon ends up on Americans’ dinner plates as ranchers and packers evade laws designed to protect the biome. McCoy vividly describes the lawlessness by settlers and the deadly consequences faced by those trying to stop it, among them his friend Dom Phillips, who was killed along with indigenous rights defender Bruno Pereira while investigating illegal fishing and logging. McCoy’s reporting represents the best of what foreign correspondents can do to address the world’s injustices.
Links to the honored work:
1. Death in the Forest
2. Devouring the Rainforest
3. The Amazon, Undone: The God of São Félix
4. The Amazon, Undone: Deforesters Are Plundering the Amazon. Brazil Is Letting Them Get Away With It. A Failure of Enforcement
5. The Amazon, Undone: My Friend Was Killed Deep in the Amazon Forest. I Went to Investigate. The Killing of Dom and Bruno
6. The Amazon, Undone: As the Amazon Rainforest Goes Dry, a Desperate Wait for Water – How the Forest Dies
Citation for Excellence:
Catherine Porter, Matt Apuzzo,
Constant Méheut and Selam Gebrekidan
The New York Times
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