Malheur County newspaper wins Poynter award for public records reporting
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An Eastern Oregon newspaper has received a national award for excellence in journalism.
The Poynter Institute, a media-focused nonprofit organization, announced the recipients of the inaugural Poynter Journalism Prizes on Tuesday. The awards program was previously led by the News Leaders Association that disbanded late last year.
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The institute evaluated over 525 entries from media organizations and reporters, and Malheur Enterprise was named one of 10 winners.
“The judges were faced with a problem that the journalism industry can be truly proud of — it was really hard to select winners because there were so many high-caliber choices,” Poynter President Neil Brown said in a statement.
The Vale-based newspaper serves the 33,000 residents of Oregon’s Malheur County. It received The First Amendment Award for its 2023 coverage of officials’ failure to disclose public records.
Due to the newspaper’s reporting and lawsuit against Malheur County and its public development company, county employees are now required to undergo training on Oregon Public Records Law.
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Malheur Enterprise is a “fantastic example of a small paper doing big work to effect real change in the local community”, according to one Poynter judge.
“Though they didn’t provide ‘multimedia’ coverage, they did provide different angles – reporting on the lack of transparency, reporting on the after effect, and providing commentary to explain the importance to their community,” the judge wrote. “That was essentially the work of just one person makes it incredibly deserving. It profoundly changed how public records are viewed in an Oregon community.”
The newspaper won alongside the county’s public works and public records departments. The recipients will receive up to $2,500 as a cash prize.
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Other finalists for The First Amendment Award were the Long-Island-based Newsday and The Washington Post.
Newsday reported on teacher misconduct in local school districts, while The Post reported on book challenges filed across various states during the 2021-2022 school year.
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