David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media Company, announced tonight that Seattle Times reporters Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry are this year's recipients of the Michael Kelly Award for their series exposing the criminal histories of members of a Rose Bowl-winning University of Washington football team.

In a statement, the award judges said Armstrong and Perry displayed "the commitment to truth that will alienate readers, risk advertising accounts, and jeopardize a newspaper's standing during already precarious times." The panel also noted that their "Victory and Ruins" series "showed how it wasn't only the athletic department and university administrators who looked the other way at the players' run-ins with the law but also local police, prosecutors, judges, and influential alumni."

The judges also recognized four journalists from three other organizations as finalists: Barry Bearak and Celia Dugger of The New York Times, Richard Behar of Fast Company and Peter Godwin of Vanity Fair.

David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media Company, announced Loretta Tofani the 2008 recipient of the Michael Kelly Award at a ceremony Thursday night in Washington. She was honored for her series on unsafe working conditions in China written for The Salt Lake Tribune.

The judges stated Tofani's four-part series "is a tribute to her persistence, resourcefulness, and moral courage." After going into private business and seeing first-hand the working conditions in China, Tofani decided to return to journalism, but discovered that few news organizations were interested in her reporting. Only through her perseverance was she able to find a newspaper committed to collaborating with her on the series.

In addition to Tofani, the judges recognized as finalists journalists who wrote three other entries: Kelly Kennedy, a staff writer for Army Times, for her series on an Army battalion in Iraq; Joshua Kors, an investigative reporter for The Nation, for stories on the military denying medical benefits to soldiers returning from Iraq; and Blake Morrison, Peter Eisler, and Tom Vanden Brook for articles in USA Today, on the Pentagon's response to the threat of roadside bombs in Iraq.

C.J. Chivers is the 2007 recipient of the Michael Kelly Award. He won for a reconstruction of the 2004 Beslan school siege written for Esquire.

"Chivers produced an extraordinary hour-by-hour account of the school siege that is impossible to put down. Through careful, persistent reporting, Chivers provided Esquire readers with a haunting look at how innocent hostages, Chechen terrorists, and Russian authorities responded to a crisis that left 362 dead." stated the award judges.

In addition to Chivers, the judges recognized journalists from four publications as finalists: Rukmini Maria Callimachi, an Associated Press correspondent; Jesse Hamilton, a reporter for The Hartford Courant; William Langewiesche, international correspondent for Vanity Fair; and Charles Forelle, James Bandler, Mark Maremont, and Steve Stecklow, reporters with The Wall Street Journal.

New York Times reporter Sharon LaFraniere is this year's recipient of the Michael Kelly Award. She won the award for her reporting from Southern Africa on the struggles faced by the women in the region.

The award judges stated, "[LaFraniere’s] reporting provides a window into African culture that is both unflinching and respectful, dispassionate and intimate. As LaFraniere's articles demonstrate, the "fearless pursuit and expression of truth" can manifest itself not only in reporting from a war zone or disaster area, but also in covering the most mundane circumstances of everyday life--the village without a doctor, the school without a toilet, and the widow without a choice."

Additionally, four journalists were recognized as finalists by the judges: Kurt Eichenwald, a reporter with The New York Times; James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, reporters with the New York Times; Chris Rose, columnist for the Times Picayune in New Orleans; and Cam Simpson, Foreign and National Correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. The finalists will each receive $3,000.

David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media Company, announced today that New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof is this year's recipient of the Michael Kelly Award for his columns denouncing genocide in Sudan and sexual exploitation in Southeast Asia.

According to a statement from the award judges, "Kristof linked the word 'genocide' to the ongoing persecution of black Africans in the Sudanese region of Darfur, and focused attention on the continued sexual exploitation of young women in the brothels of Cambodia. With conviction, passion, and audacity, Kristof tugged at the world's conscience, in the best tradition of Michael Kelly."

In addition to Kristof, four journalists were recognized as finalists by the judges: David Grann, a staff writer with The New Yorker; Kim Murphy, Moscow bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times; Maximillian Potter, executive editor of 5280, the Denver city magazine; and Elizabeth Rubin, contributing writer, New York Times Magazine.

Anthony Shadid, a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, has been selected as the first winner of the Michael Kelly Award. Shadid was chosen because he displayed both physical and intellectual courage in his reporting from Iraq, and embodies the fearless expression and pursuit of truth recognized by the Kelly award.

Judges also picked four finalists for the award: Dan Christensen, Miami Daily Business Review; Tom Junod, Esquire; John Lantigua, The Palm Beach Post; and George Packer, The New Yorker.

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