In “The Invisible Army,” Sarah Stillman tells the story of ten Fijian beauticians who were recruited for lucrative jobs in a posh Dubai salon, only to end up in Iraq giving manicures and massages to U.S. soldiers. "Through their mistreatment, Stillman exposes the larger scandal of thousands of foreign workers on U.S. military bases reduced to something like indentured servitude," said the Kelly Award judges in a statement. "Working as a freelance reporter without a contract, Stillman spent more than a year reporting the story, traveling to four countries, six military bases, and two war zones."

For additional information, including full entries and past winners, please visit http://www.kellyaward.com/.

Atlantic Media Company is a Washington, D.C.-based publishing company whose flagship properties include The Atlantic, National Journal, and Governmen t Executive.

In their four-part series, "Agents' Secrets," Mandy Locke and Joseph Neff exposed widespread misconduct at the State Bureau of Investigation in North Carolina. Agents fabricated stories or cut corners to prove prosecutors' theories. Lab examiners flouted accepted scientific techniques and withheld evidence to help build cases for prosecutors. As a result of the series, top officials at the bureau have been fired or replaced and the SBI is rewriting its policies and procedures. The series was an example of the News & Observer's exemplary criminal-justice reporting over the past several years -- reporting that helped free a death row inmate and trigger the establishment of the nation's first Innocence Inquiry Commission.

For additional information, including full entries and past winners, please visit http://www.kellyaward.com/.

Atlantic Media Company is a Washington, D.C.-based publishing company whose flagship properties include The Atlantic, National Journal, and Governmen t Executive.

"David Rohde epitomizes fearlessness in the pursuit of truth. He put himself in harm's way to learn more about the Taliban. He responded bravely to his capture and seven-m onth captivity. And he displayed moral courage in reliving his ordeal through an unflinching five-part series. Michael Kelly would have been the first to admire his work," sa id Charles Green, editor of National Journal and a Michael Kelly Award judge.

Rohde was cited for a riveting five-part series in The New York Times, describing how he and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by the Taliban outside Kabul and held for seven months before he and one of his colleagues escaped on foot to a Pakistani military base. Rohde was initially reluctant to write about his experience, telling his edito rs, "I don't want to make myself look like a hero. I am not a hero." But he bravely used his captivity to illuminate the world about the minds of terrorists who repeatedly th reatened to behead him and to provide insights into what Rohde termed a "Taliban mini-state" in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Five judges comprised this year's Michael Kelly Award selection panel:

Ken Armstrong, The Seattle Times
Siobhan Gorman, The Wall Street Journal
Charlie Green, National Journal
Kathy Kiely, USA Today
Cullen Murphy, Vanity Fair

For additional information, including full entries and past winners, please visit http://www.kellyaward.com/.

Atlantic Media Company is a Washington, D.C.-based publishing company whose flagship properties include The Atlantic, National Journal, and Governmen t Executive.

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.

Full Press Release (PDF)