NYU ethics award finalists named

The Washington Post, a New Yorker podcast series, the Guardian, and Mississippi Today are among the finalists for the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism, which celebrates journalism that meets the highest ethical standards in the face of pressure or incentives to do otherwise.

Administered by New York University’s Ethics and Journalism Initiative, the new prize commends work—in student, local, and national/international categories—published or broadcast between September 2023 and August 2024.

“Ethical journalism is more important than ever in this age of misinformation and distrust,” said Stephen J. Adler, founding director of the Ethics and Journalism Initiative. “Our panel of distinguished judges recognized outstanding work that gained credibility and authority due to the thoughtful handling of difficult ethical issues. Congratulations to the inaugural-year finalists.”

The finalists in each category for the prize’s inaugural cycle are:

Student Category:

• University of Florida senior Garrett Shanley for his reporting on tensions between liberal arts faculty and university officials over Florida’s Hamilton Center, for the Chronicle of Higher Education
• Columbia University School of Journalism alumnus (2024) Ariane Luthi for her profile of Afghan allies left behind after the US withdrew military forces, for Foreign Policy
• Johns Hopkins junior Cathy Wang for her investigation of Johns Hopkins’s real estate holdings for the Johns Hopkins News-Letter

Local Category:

• Documented NY for its reporting on the increased surveillance of New York’s Chinese American community by both the U.S. and Chinese governments
• The Baltimore Banner for its four-part series exposing decades of alleged sexual abuse and cover-up by officials of Greater Grace World Outreach Church
• Mississippi Today for its continued coverage of state officials’ alleged misuse of federal welfare funds in the face of an ongoing lawsuit against the publication by former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant

National/International Category:

• The New Yorker for “In The Dark,” a nine-part podcast series tracing the legacy of the 2005 shooting of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha
• The Washington Post for its extensive investigation of 1,800 criminal cases against law enforcement officials accused of sexually abusing children
• NBC News,the Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, for their coverage of the exploitation of Amazon workers in Saudi Arabia

Winners and first and second runners-up will be announced at the inaugural Collier Awards Ceremony, which will take place on Thursday, April 10, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan (25 West 52nd Street). Dean Baquet, former executive editor of the New York Times, is the event’s keynote speaker.

The next day, April 11, the Ethics and Journalism Initiative will host the Collier Awards Symposium, a series of public events in which finalists will discuss their work and ethical processes, at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute (20 Cooper Square, 7th Floor). Admission is free at both the awards ceremony and the symposium.

The Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism is sponsored by Nathan S. Collier, founder and chairman of the Collier Companies, in honor of his great-grand uncle, Peter F. Collier, who emigrated from Ireland in 1866, became a book publisher, and founded Collier’s Weekly in 1888.