The Financial News & Daily Record received an honorable mention in The Florida Bar’s 49th annual Media Awards competition.
The Daily Record’s entry was about Jacksonville attorney Alan Pickert, who claims at least 36 children in Jacksonville are victims of mercury poisoning that will leave them incapacitated for life.
The Florida Bar selected three media organizations as grand prize winners in the competition. Each winner will be recognized at The Florida Bar’s Media Law Conference in the fall.
The grand prize winners are The Orlando Sentinel (newspapers and other periodicals with circulation over 50,000), the Daily Business Review (newspapers and other periodicals with circulation under 50,000), and WKMG-TV of Orlando (television). The Florida Times-Union also received an honorable mention.
The Orlando Sentinel’s winning entry was about the rape and pregnancy of a severely mentally disabled 22-year-old-woman that ignited a legal battle last May, pitting the governor of Florida against a circuit judge and thrusting an Orlando case into the national debate over the rights of the unborn.
The Daily Business Review submitted three pieces. The submissions were a compilation of articles, including one about an Algerian-born Broward man who was detained in the aftermath of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether a U.S. District Judge and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals abused their decision by sealing his case without explanation.
WKMG-TV submitted “Fake Law Firm,” an investigation which revealed a con artist acting as a lawyer claiming to help families of federal prisoners desperate for downward departures and re-sentencings.
The Times-Union was selected after submitting two pieces. One submission was a compilation of 200 stories written about the case against former Jacksonville police officer Karl Waldon, who was charged in a crime spree that included a 1998 slaying. The second submission was a two-day series about accused serial killer Paul Durousseau and his many troubles with the criminal justice system.