By: E&P Staff Kevin Sites, a freelance photojournalist for NBC, will be awarded the 2005 Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism on May 12 for his decision-making process after he witnessed and taped a U.S. Marine killing an unarmed Iraqi man in a mosque.
Sites decided to share the tape with the military, then he worked with NBC to create a "well-nuanced story that aired 48 hours after the incident," according to the Payne announcement. Since he was working as a pool photojournalist at the time, Sites shared the tape with the other news organizations in the pool.
When Sites was criticized after other outlets used the footage, he answered the critics and explained his decisions in detail on his Weblog,
www.kevinsites.net.
Other Payne awards this year will go to The Denver Post for its decisions surrounding the Kobe Bryant case and to The State Press, Arizona State University's student newspaper, for its handling of a controversial photograph.
The University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication, which presents the Payne Awards, said in its announcement that the Post had done the right thing when it decided to uphold existing policy not to name alleged rape victims. While several Web sites and other local news organizations used the name of Kobe Bryant's accuser, the Post consulted with a sexual-assault expert and a rape survivor before making its decision, which was explained in a detailed note to readers.
The State Press, which faced protests from the school's administration and from the university's largest donor, used "mature, thoughtful, step-by-step consideration" in its response under fire, the Payne citation said.
A special citation will go to the former Sinclair Broadcasting Group reporter who was fired after he spoke out against the company's decision to run a controversial documentary two weeks before the 2004 election.
"In a time when news organization are finding it necessary to produce exhaustive reports about the failings within their organizations, it is encouraging to see evidence of so many thoughtful, careful, ethical processes," Tim Gleason, dean of the Oregon j-school, said in a statement.
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