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Apr

5

PD’s Connors wins Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for series on own rape, sexual assault


Congratulations to the Plain Dealer’s Joanna Connors:

Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reporter Joanna Connors was named the 2008 winner of the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism on Friday for the first-person account of her own attack in the series “Beyond Rape: A Survivors Journey.”

In the series, Connors recounted the story of her rape in 1984. The series, she said, helped her take control of a traumatic event that “was still powerful inside me.”

Connors’ articles — which ran across 16 pages of the Plain Dealer over a weekend in May — told not just of the attack on her, but also about the perpetrator and issues of race and privilege, Medill said. 

More from the PD about it here where they also include judges comments:

Donna Leff, professor of journalism at Medill and one of the judges for the award, called Connors’ account “absolutely compelling . . . very brave and extremely well-written and structured” and pointed to the reporter’s “directness in expressing her discomfort with race and class and her sensitivity on those issues.”

In addition to receiving the Medill Medal, Connors was named the recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Jesse Laventhol Prize for Non-Deadline News Reporting for “Beyond Rape.”

Her series can be seen at: cleveland.com/beyondrape.

Thank you for sharing doesn’t really do Connors’ work justice, but maybe these awards come a little closer.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:18 am April 5th, 2009 in Cleveland+, Crime, Culture, Gender, Law, Media, Ohio, Social Issues, Women, Writing 

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