Crime and justice stories were among the American Society of News Editors’ annual awards, announced yesterday. The Newark Star-Ledger won the Jesse Laventhol prize for deadline news reporting “for capturing the drama, strangeness and import of one of New Jersey’s largest corruption scandals with impressive reporting muscle and a captivating brand of storytelling. Along with a lively account of the arrest of 44 people, the staff delivered absorbing portraits of the key informant and the Syrian Jewish community that had become the sudden subject of unwanted attention.”
Nina Bernstein of the New York Times won the Freedom Forum/ASNE award for distinguished writing on diversity for reporting “and compelling storytelling on the mistreatment of immigrants in federal custody, particularly her stories that revealed unreported deaths and efforts by officials to hide them from the public.” Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News won an award for local accountability reporting for a series on a rogue squad of Philadelphia narcotics cops that systematically looted mom and pop stores under the guise of busting them for selling drug paraphernalia.