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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

PD receives Dart Center award

SEATTLE - The Dart Center has announced the selection of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and National Public Radio as the winners of the 2008 Dart awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.

In addition, WFCR (Amherst, Mass.) and National Public Radio received Honorable Mentions in the radio category.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer received the Dart Award for “Johanna: Facing Forward” (Rachel Dissell, reporter; Gus Chan, photographer). This remarkable nine-day series traced events leading to the 2007 shooting of 18-year-old Johanna Orozco by her 17-year-old boyfriend. Exploring the roots of relationship violence through Johanna's eyes, the series – reported and photographed over six months - particularly struck a chord in Cleveland's Latino community and led to the creation of abuse-awareness programs for teens.

Judges singled out “Johanna: Facing Forward” for its extraordinarily compelling and careful explanation of a teenager’s harrowing experience. They described it as a tour-de-force of narrative writing and photography and called the series poignant, complex and intimate. They commended Dissell and Chan for the compassion, dignity and cultural acuity used in reporting Johanna’s story.

National Public Radio received the Dart Award for "Sexual Abuse of Native American Women" (Laura Sullivan, correspondent), a startling two-part investigative series that opened a new window onto a national disgrace. The series exposed both the fate of women assaulted on reservations, and the web of impunity protecting their assailants.

Judges called “Sexual Abuse of Native American Women” a ground-breaking and powerful expose of an invisible epidemic of rape on reservations, and commended Sullivan for her determination and persistence in the face of tremendous reporting challenges.

The newspaper and radio Dart Award winners each receive $5,000.

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