By: (AP)
The Boston Globe on Friday won the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) Freedom of Information award for its exposure of the scope of the problem of an abusive clergy within the Catholic Church.
The
Globe's account began with an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by a priest in the Boston Archdiocese and ballooned into a major national story.
The award was presented during the APME annual conference here.
Walter Robinson, editor of the
Globe's Spotlight team, which has handled the coverage, told 300 newspaper editors and other journalists that as hard as it is to obtain certain records from government, it was even more difficult to get information and records from the church.
Seven other newspapers were selected to receive APME FOI citations for their work in the area of access and public information. They are:
* The Journal News, White Plains, N.Y., for various FOI probes, each of which resulted in the removal of high-ranking local officials.
* The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for "Dying in Darkness," an investigation into the care given by the state of Georgia to the mentally retarded living in group homes.
* Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, for its exposure of illegal campaign activity within the Wisconsin Legislature.
* The Orange County Register, Santa Ana, Calif., for its investigation into the criminal backgrounds of day care center employees in California, and the state's refusal to make those records available to parents.
* The York (Pa.) Dispatch/York Sunday News, for its investigations into the 1969 slaying of a woman during a civil rights riot, resulting in the indictment of the mayor on a charge of murder.
* York (Pa.) Daily Record, for its investigations into the same case.
* The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, for its investigation into the issue of medical malpractice within the state.
The contest covered work published or pursued from July 1, 2001, to June 30. Judges were Bill Felber, editor, The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury; Caesar Andrews, president of APME and editor of Gannett News Service, McLean, Va.; Peggy Kuhr, APME conference chairman and Knight Chair in Journalism, William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Kansas; and David Ledford, executive editor, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. All are officers or directors of APME.
Judges did not have entries in the competition. The full APME board of directors ratified the finalists and winner.
APME is an organization of editors and managing editors of the AP's more than 1,500 member newspapers.
http://www.apme.com
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