Detroit Free Press Wins Dart Award

The Detroit Free Press has won this year's $10,000 Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Victims of Violence for “Homicide in Detroit: Echoes of Violence.”

$10,000 Prize for Series: “Homicide in Detroit”

The Detroit Free Press has won this year's $10,000 Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Victims of Violence for “Homicide in Detroit: Echoes of Violence.”

Judges described the six-part series as timeless, touching and powerful, with the stories conveying the immediate impact of violence and the long-term effects on everyone from young children to the elderly. Strong photos and careful reporting “showed a deep respect for victims and the community,” said one judge.

Reporter Jeff Seidel and photographer Eric Seals spent six months covering crime scenes, court cases, and neighborhood experiences. The series was published in December 2004.

Two honorable mentions were also awarded by the final judges: the Orange County Register for “Women of Juarez,” an eight-part series about survivors in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a community that has seen hundreds of women killed in the past decade; and the Rocky Mountain News for “The Healing Fields,” a 12-part series about a local couple who survived the Cambodian killing fields and returned years later to help others.

The Dart Center will present the award and honorable mentions in a public program on April 15 at the University of Washington in Seattle. The special presentation— marking the 12th Annual Dart Award—will follow a daylong conference on “Journalism and the tsunami—lessons learned and what to do next in covering the social, political and economic fallout.”

This year’s final judges were Tom Arviso, Jr., publisher of the Navajo Times; Clementina Chéry, founding director of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute; Gretel Daugherty, staff reporter and photojournalist at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel in Colorado; Dean G. Kilpatrick, president-elect of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies; and Sharon Schmickle, award-winning reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. First-tier judges were Robert Jamieson, columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Michele Klevens, psychotherapist at VA Puget Sound Healthcare; Marc Ramirez, reporter for the Seattle Times; Karen Rathe, journalism instructor at the University of Washington Department of Communication, and Edward Rynearson, M.D., medical director of Separation and Loss Services in Seattle.

The Dart Award is administered by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at the University of Washington. Funded by the Dart Foundation of Mason, Mich., the Center develops educational resources for use in journalism schools and news organizations, provides training and conducts research about the coverage of violence.