2009 IRE Award winners announced

Investigations that exposed failures of government regulation, abuse of military personnel and failures of the criminal justice system are among the work honored in the 2009 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards.

This year there were two recipients of the top prize, the IRE Medal.  The New York Times’ Charles Duhigg and a team of database experts and multimedia specialists exposed failings in the government’s efforts to protect the nation’s water supply in the series "Toxic Waters."

Mark Greenblatt, David Raziq, Keith Tomshe, Chris Henao, Robyn Hughes and Keith Connors of KHOU-Houston also received the IRE Medal for “Under Fire: Discrimination and Corruption in the Texas National Guard.”  The team took on the military “old boys” network and revealed a systemic culture of misogyny that ultimately led to the firing of three top generals in the Texas National Guard.

Click here for a complete list of the winners and finalists in the 2009 IRE Awards.  A pdf of the official press release can be found here.

The awards, given by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year. The contest covers 16 categories across media platforms and a range of market sizes. The contest, which began in 1979, received more than 450 entries this year.