ICIJ Wins Tom Renner Award

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April 2nd, 2009

ImageThe International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a program of the Center for Public Integrityin Washington, DC, has been awarded the 2008 Tom Renner Award for its series on tobacco smuggling.

The Renner award is given each year to the best reporting on organized crime by Investigative Reporters and Editors, the world's largest and oldest investigative membership organization.

The series, “Tobacco Underground: The Booming Global Trade in Smuggled Cigarettes” looked at the current state of tobacco smuggling throughout the world.

"Fourteen journalists in 10 countries took great risk to provide a comprehensive and compelling look at the illicit trafficking in tobacco. The reporters found organized criminal activity robbing governments of tax money. Using hidden cameras and computer-assisted reporting, the team uncovered the story of hundreds of billions of contraband cigarettes, many being sold in the U.S. through Indian reservations. The report, which employed a sophisticated multimedia presentation and interactive website, also detailed how one major British manufacturer is encouraging the illegal trade," said the IRE announcement.

Journalists and editors who worked on the project were Stefan Candea, Duncan Campbell, Te-Ping Chen, Gong Jing, Alain Lallemand, Vlad Lavrov, William Marsden, Paul Cristian Radu, Roman Shleynov, Leo Sisti, Drew Sullivan, Marina Walker Guevara, Kate Willson and David E. Kaplan.

Five OCCRP contributors worked on the project.

OCCRP reporters and editors congratulate ICIJ for their persistent and groundbreaking work on this issue over the years and are proud to have played a part.