Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. is launching a new award -- dubbed the Golden Padlock -- recognizing the most secretive publicly-funded agency or person in the United States. It is calling on journalists and the public for worthy nominees.

"This honor acknowledges the dedication of government officials working tirelessly to keep vital information hidden from the public," said David Cay Johnston, president of IRE . "Their abiding commitment to secrecy and impressive skill in information suppression routinely keeps knowledge about everything from public health risks to government waste beyond the reach of citizens who pay their salaries."

IRE is now accepting nominations for the ...

At its June 20 meeting during our annual conference in San Antonio, the IRE Board of Directors will consider modifying the policy that bans entries in the IRE Awards if a Board member has been involved with a story at any level.

IRE currently has one of the strictest such policies of any journalism contest. Under the policy, any involvement by a board member makes a story ineligible. In addition to writing, reporting, editing and producing, this has been interpreted to include senior editors who helped provide direction or did a final read on a project.

The policy was designed ...

Investigative Reporters & Editors salutes Linsdey Hobbs of Otterbein University in Ohio, recipient of the eighth annual Betty Gage Holland Award recognizing excellence in college journalism. Hobbs and the student newspaper at Otterbein, The Tan & Cardinal, were honored for their continued coverage of increased secrecy surrounding campus crime in 2012.

After Otterbein's campus security force gained certification as a full police department in late 2011, Hobbs investigated. She found a longstanding pattern of student misdemeanors -- and sometimes more serious crimes -- being handled through campus judicial proceedings rather than criminal courts. Subsequent reporting by Hobbs also details the inconsistency with which ...

Seven IRE members were among winners of the 64th annual George Polk Awards in Journalism, announced today by Long Island University. The annual George Polk Awards in Journalism were established in 1949 by Long Island University to commemorate George Polk, a CBS Correspondent murdered in 1948 while reporting on the civil war in Greece. The following IRE members were honored in this year’s awards:

• David Corn of Mother Jones won the George Polk Award for Political Reporting for his work securing and publishing video of  the “47 percent” remarks from 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney. See the full story ...

Investigations that exposed major abuses and wrongdoing by law enforcement agencies and the failure of government to protect society’s most vulnerable members are among the work honored in the 2011 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards.

Covering 15 categories across several media platforms and a range of market sizes, the IRE Awards recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year. The contest, which began in 1979, received over 430 entries this year. 

“Despite devastating cutbacks across the news business, investigative reporting is alive and well, and really making a difference in our society,” said Lea Thompson, contest committee co-chairwoman ...

By Susan Snyder and Dylan Purcell

The Philadelphia Inquirer

A series of racial attacks at a Philadelphia high school in late 2009 – and the school district's inadequate response – prompted The Inquirer to launch an investigation into school violence. Its seven-part series, "Assault on Learning", and follow-up stories published throughout the past year, showed that violence is widespread and underreported in the city's schools.

The five-member reporting team looked at violence among young children, how the district's main intervention system for helping students failed and how violent acts occurred in classrooms on a regular basis, disrupting the school ...

Photo credit: USC Annenberg School
for Communication & Journalism

Congratulations to Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times, for receiving the 2012 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, for their series “Methadone and the Politics of Pain.” Berens will be speaking at IRE's Watchdog Workshop this weekend in Spokane, Wash. Berens and Armstong, both IRE members, will be presented the journalism award during the Selden Ring Award Luncheon, part of IRE's Watchdog Workshop April 13-14 in Los Angeles.

From USC's website:

The $35,000 annual award, which has been presented for the past 23 years ...

Teachers not making the grade. Under reported cases of sexual assault and other crimes on college campuses nationwide. Immigrant’s impact on the economy.

Journalists from all over the country dug deep to uncover these stories last year with work that won the Philip Meyer Journalism Award. The award recognizes stories that incorporate survey research, probabilities and other social science tools in creative ways that lead to journalism vital to the community.

The postmark deadline is Monday, Oct. 31.

Three awards are given annually:

• $500 — 1st place
• $300 — 2nd place
• $200 — 3rd place

Established in 2005, the awards were created ...

Investigations that found financial mismanagement and fraud in business and industry, cover-ups of lethal products, and failure of government to protect the public are among the works honored in the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards.

This year, there were two recipients of the top prize: the IRE Medal. The Los Angeles Times uncovered a story of incredible greed in one of California’s poorest towns, Bell, in “Breach of Faith.” The Times revealed how residents’ tax money was going toward outlandish salaries for some city employees, while others were getting laid off and services were being cut. The series ...