Civil Beat Wins National Nonprofit News Award For Fireworks Coverage
Judges called the coverage “a compelling example of journalism serving both accountability and the public good.”
The Institute for Nonprofit News has honored Honolulu Civil Beat with the Insight Award For Explanatory Journalism for its coverage of the New Year’s Eve fireworks explosion in Salt Lake and its aftermath.
Judges commended Civil Beat for investigating the deadly explosion as well as the other causes, such as lax regulation and enforcement of laws restricting fireworks that led up to it.
“This reporting on fireworks not only documents a devastating tragedy with clarity and humanity, but also exposes systemic failures in enforcement that allowed the dangers of using fireworks to persist,” one judge wrote. “It is rare to see a direct line between investigative work and measurable public impact, and this coverage stands as a compelling example of journalism serving both accountability and the public good.”
Civil Beat reporters began covering the tragedy with a breaking news story published early the morning of Jan. 1 and continued with stories throughout the year that provided background and context. The three pieces honored by INN included an in-depth narrative about what happened, a historical piece about Honolulu’s poor track record in regulating fireworks over the years and crowd-sourced solutions from the community.
The Institute for Nonprofit News is a network of 500 independent news organizations dedicated to public service. Civil Beat’s award was among 26 INNYs granted across 11 categories on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the organization’s annual conference.
In the explanatory category for large publications won by Civil Beat, there were four finalists:
- The Narwhal and the Winnipeg Free Press, How a Trade War Could Hurt Farmers on Both Sides of the Canada-U.S. Border, Julia-Simone Rutgers
- The Hechinger Report, How the Trump Administration Gutted Education Research, Jill Barshay
- Type Investigations and High Country News, Lights Out, Emma Foehringer Merchant, Maria Parazo Rose
- The Connecticut Mirror, Two Families, One Child: the Case that Reshaped Foster Parents’ Rights in Connecticut, Ginny Monk
