NARRAGANSETT, RI. September 16, 2006 – As part of the Grantham Prize Seminar on the State of Environmental Journalism, nearly 20 news executives from around the country will take part in a panel discussion, “Seeking Excellence in Reporting on the Environment,” at the University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute, Monday, September 25th.
The seminar is part of a daylong program honoring the winners of the Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment. The winners of the $75,000 award, a nine-member reporting team from The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey, will discuss their winning entry beginning at 11:15 a.m. The team is being honored for its “Toxic Legacy” investigative series on pollution caused by a Mahwah, N.J., Ford Motor Company automobile assembly plant (http://www.toxiclegacy.com/). The work of three recipients of $5,000 Awards of Special Merit also will be highlighted.
The panel discussion will begin at 2 p.m. and is dedicated to a discussion of the state of environmental journalism among invited panelists representing print, radio, and television media. (click here for a list of participants).
The entire program will be webcast live from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography Coastal Institute. The webcast will be available from both the Grantham Prize and the Metcalf Institute websites.
Prize Administrator Sunshine Menezes, Executive Director of the Metcalf Institute, said the webcast “will be available to a wide audience, and useful to journalism schools to highlight the perspectives of top journalism editors on the importance of sound environmental reporting.”
The University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment created the Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment last year. The prize honors the work of one journalist or team of journalists for exemplary reporting on the environment. The annual prize is open to journalists, writers and producers in the U.S. and Canada and recognizes nonfiction work published or broadcast the previous year. The deadline for the 2007 Award is March 7, 2007.
The Grantham Prize is funded by Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham through The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. The foundation supports natural resource conservation programs both in the United States and internationally. Jeremy Grantham is a Boston-based investment strategist and Hannelore Grantham is the Director of The Grantham Foundation.
The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting was established in 1997 with funding from three media foundations – the Belo Corporation, the Providence Journal Charitable Foundation and the Philip L. Graham Fund – and the Telaka Foundation. It is named after the late Michael P. Metcalf, a visionary in journalism and publisher of The Providence Journal Bulletin from 1979-1987. The Metcalf Institute provides science training for reporters and editors to help improve the accuracy and clarity of marine and environmental reporting and offers journalism fellowships in support of diversity and reporting on science and the environment.
The Grantham Prize Seminar on the State of Environmental Journalism will be held at the University of Rhode Island Coastal Institute at the Graduate School of Oceanography Narragansett Bay Campus on September 25, 2006, from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm. The morning session is free and open to the public, but due to space constraints, Seeking Excellence in Environmental Reporting will be available only through a live broadcast.
For more information contact: Stephen Turgeon, (401) 289-0112