|
Awards
Review stories on federal court secrecy cited again
June 24, 2004
Daily Business Review reporter Dan Christensen has won his third national journalism award of the year for a series of articles about secrecy in the federal courts.
On Wednesday, the National Press Club announced that Christensen would receive the 2004 Freedom of the Press Award for his series. A $1,000 prize accompanies the award.
Last March, Christensen was the first to report on the existence of a federal habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court in Miami that was kept secret by the court. The case wasn’t even listed on the court’s public docket.
He also was the first to report that the rulings of the district court and 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the case sealed were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected the case for review earlier this year.
Christensen’s articles in the Review prompted the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to file an amicus brief, as well as to launch a study of secrecy in the federal courts. The New York Times, Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor and other publications followed up on the story.
The articles also prompted a coalition of news and legal organizations to seek to intervene in the Supreme Court case and gain public access to information about the case.
Christensen’s series also won honors in the National Headliner Awards and the Michael Kelly Award contest. In addition, the series took first place in investigative reporting in the Florida Sunshine State Awards sponsored by the South Florida Society of Professional Journalists.
In its 31st annual journalism awards contest, the National Press Club selected 32 winners in 20 categories that included international and environmental reporting.
The Los Angeles Times won in diplomatic reporting, the Wall Street Journal won in consumer reporting, and the Mobile Register won for Washington correspondence.
The winners will be honored at a dinner at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on July 12.
|
