2002:
Mexican Journalist Awarded IAPA Grand Prize For Freedom Of The Press

Winners of the IAPA 2002 awards will receive prizes in Lima next October during General Assembly

MIAMI (June 28) - Mexican journalist Jesús Blancornelas, who has distinguished himself for courageous coverage of the most notorious Mexican drug cartels, has been awarded the IAPA Grand Prize for Press Freedom, the Inter American Press Association announced.

Blancornelas, director of the weekly magazine Zeta, Tijuana, Mexico, was one of nearly a score of winners selected from newspapers of the Americas in 11 categories ranging from hard news coverage to creativity through infographics and cartoons.

The IAPA Awards Committee, chaired by Saturnino Herrero Mitjans of the Buenos Aires daily Clarín, chose winners and honorable mentions from among nearly 300 entries representing the print media in the Western Hemisphere in this year's contest.

The awards, consisting of $2,000 American dollars and a plaque or diploma, will be presented to the winners in October at the IAPA 58th General Assembly in Lima, Peru, to take place from the 25th through the 29th of October.

Following are the categories and winners:

The IAPA Grand Prize for Press Freedom to Jesus Blancornelas, for his article, "Los Intocables," published in Revista Poder, Miami, Florida, Unites States. The award citation describes Blancornelas as a journalist "who has dedicated his career and, indeed, his well-being to the pursuit of a free press that is vigilant, untainted by corruption, and committed to defending the Mexican people. Not even the bullets of a would-be assassin have silenced Blancornelas. He is a symbol of dignity and a model for all journalists throughout the Americas."

1. Inter-American Relations Award sponsored by La Prensa, Managua, Nicaragua, to the newsroom of La Crónica de Baja California, Mexicali, Mexico, for an unusually comprehensive investigation of cross-border smuggling rings and the exploitation of undocumented Mexican workers by their smugglers and their employers in the United States.

2. Human Rights and Community Service Award, sponsored by El Panamá-América, Panama, Organización Publicitaria S.A., San Pedro Sula, Honduras, El Comercio, Lima, Peru, and La Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina to Maüri Konig, O Estado de Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil, for his story on Brazilian and other immigrant minors forcibly recruited into Paraguayan military service. Konig was brutally attacked by three men while writing the story and survived.

Honorable mention: to Peter Fritsch, The Wall Street Journal, New York, for work on the story of a Mexican actress framed in the death of a TV personality.

3. Newspapers in Education Award, sponsored by Hoy, Quito, Ecuador, and Novedades de Quintana Roo, Cancún, Mexico, to Lucy Hood, Sharon Hughes, Edmund Tijerina and Edward Ornelas, of the San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, Texas, United States, for an unusual collaboration of this team of reporters with a single Texas public high school during an entire school year to document how dropout rates are underreported to make schools appear more successful.

Honorable mention: to the group of reporters at The Daily Gleaner, Kingston, Jamaica, for its commitment in publishing information encouraging younger people to become interested in newspapers.

4. Editorial Writing Award sponsored by El Mercurio, Santiago, Chile, to Timothy O'Leary, Dallas Morning News Dallas, Texas, for his "clear and singular voice among American editorial writers on all hemispheric topics."

5. News Coverage Award sponsored by El Nacional, Caracas, Venezuela, O Estado de S. Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil to Scott Wilson, The Washington Post, Washington D.C., United States, for a series about Colombia's paramilitaries Auto Defensas de Colombia (AUC).

Honorable Mention: to Vera Araujo, Renato Garcia and Elenilce Bottari, O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for coverage exposing a prostitution ring in which police and public officials are involved in Rio.

6. In-Depth Reporting Award sponsored by The Miami Herald , Miami, Florida, United States, to Sergio Ramalho, O Día, Rio de Janeiro, for his piece titled "Mercado Negro de Infancia" which depicts the black marketing of children in Brazil.

Honorable Mention: to Flavia Oliveira and newsroom staff, O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a series on the city of Rio and its social breakdowns.

Honorable Mention: to John Otis, The Houston Chronicle, Houston, Texas, United States, for a story on Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the oldest guerrilla army in Latin America.

7. Feature Writing Award sponsored by El Comercio, Quito, Ecuador, and McClatchy Newspapers, Sacramento, California, United States, to Tim Collie, Michele Salcedo and Vanessa Bauza, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, for"AIDS in the Caribbean: Witness to an epidemic," a searing story of an epidemic that is spreading insidiously throughout the Caribbean at an alarming rate, especially among the poor.

Honorable Mention: to Sibila Camps, Clarín, Buenos Aires, Argentina, for her work on the indigenous people of Argentina.

Honorable Mention: to Javier Erik Olvera, Fresno Bee, Fresno, California, United States, for the piece on the migrant fruit pickers.

8. Photography Award sponsored by El País, Montevideo, Uruguay and ABC Color, Asuncion, Paraguay, to Peter Andrew Bosch, The Miami Herald, for his arresting portfolio of images documenting neglected prisoners who are left to die in their Haitian prison cells.

9. Cartoons Award sponsored by El Tiempo, Bogotá, Colombia, to Vladimir Florez "Vladdo", Revista Semana, Bogotá, for his cartoons of celebrities, politicians and .

10. Infographics Award sponsored by Clarín, Buenos Aires, Argentina, to the group of artists and journalists of the San Antonio Express-News, for an elegant and accessible two-page study of downtown revival in San Antonio.

Honorable mention: Alessandro Alvim, O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, "Rock in Rio" for the layout of a rock festival.

The jury for the 2002 IAPA Awards for Excellence in Journalism was made up, in addition to Herrero, of Robert Rivard, San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, Texas; Eduardo Urueña, El Popular, Toronto, Canada; Carlos Besanson, Diario del Viajero, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Bill Casey, Dow Jones Co., New York, New York; María Ofelia Cerro Moral, La Industria of Trujillo and Chiclayo, Lima, Perú; Felipe T. Edwards, El Mercurio, Santiago, Chile; Demócrito Dummar, O Povo, Ceará, Brazil; Francisco Fascetto, El Día, La Plata, Argentina; Marcelo Pablo Gallardo R., Diario Correo de Punta del Este, Maldonado, Uruguay; Gerardo García Gamboa, Novedades de Mérida, Mérida, Mexico; Alejandro González P., El Rancagüino, Rancagua, Chile; André Luis Jungblut, Gazeta do Sul, Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil; J. Gerardo López, La Opinión, Los Angeles, California; Michael McGuire, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois; Francisco Montes, El Diario de Cuyo, Cuyo, Argentina; Fernando M. Portella, Editora O Día, Río de Janeiro, Brazil; Christopher S. Roberts, The Gleaner, Kingston, Jamaica; Edward Schumacher, The Wall Street Journal Americas, New York, New York; and Paul K. Scripps, E.W. Scripps Company, San Diego, California. Also collaborating was Roberto Fernández, Clarín, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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