Our past winners
2017
Winner, Prix Cercle des médias (French)
Emmanuel Haddad
French-Lebanese journalist based for four years in Beirut, Lebanon. Emmanuel Haddad publishes written reports for French media such as La Croix, Le Monde Diplomatique and We Demain; Swiss media like Sept, Le Courrier and La Cité; radio stations like Deutsche Welle and Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS).
He made his first steps in journalism as a radio journalist for Radio Orient, before becoming the French editor of the European webmagazine cafebabel. In 2011, he became a freelance journalist in Barcelona, Spain, in the middle of the Spanish economic crisis and the social movement of the Indignados. There, for one year, he followed the daily life of African immigrants struggling to survive as informal scrap merchants in the outskirts of the Mediterranean city.
In 2012, he moved in Niamey, Niger, from where he observed the Subsaharian migrants’ wave on their way to Europe, as well as Nigerien returnees from Libya, in the aftermath of the conflicts in Libya and in Mali. In 2013, he moved to Lebanon, from where he covered the Syrian refugee crisis in the country, as well as the human and social impact of the Syrian conflict in the region. In 2014, he received a grant from the University of Florence, Italy, to follow a Syrian refugee on his way to Europe. In October 2016, he spent a month in Somaliland to cover the multifaceted migrant issue in this self-proclaimed State, surrounded by countries in conflict such as Ethiopia, Yemen and Somalia.
Winner, Immigration Journalism Prize (English)
Seth Freed Wessler
Seth Freed Wessler is a New York-based reporter and a Puffin Foundation Fellow with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute. He has reported for NBC News, The Nation, ProPublica, This American Life, Reveal and Colorines.com, among other outlets.
Seth worked as a staff reporter for NBC and for Colorlines and has been a Soros media fellow, a visiting Scholar at NYU’s Arthur Carter Journalism Institute and a Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good.
He was awarded the Hillman Prize, the Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media, and the Society of American Business Editors and Reporters investigative prize, among other awards. Seth’s work on immigration enforcement, the safety net, and federal prisons has spurred reforms in federal law enforcement policy, the passage of state legislation to protect the rights of immigrants, and legal action against corporate wrongdoing.
Learn more about the Award ceremony
2016
WINNER – PRIX TF1 (FRENCH)
Doan Bui – “Le pianiste”, L’Obs
Doan Bui is a reporter for the weekly magazine l’Obs (formerly known as Le Nouvel Observateur) where she started working in 2003. Born in France, she grew in le Mans. She was awarded the “Albert Londres prize” in 2013, for “The ghosts of the Evros River”, a story about the migrants who disappeared, trying to cross the Evros River, between Turkey and Island. She has covered the migrant and refugees issues, reporting from Lesbos, Lampedusa or Hungary and many other places.
She has also dealt with this political issue in France: she wrote with Isabelle Monnin “Comment ils sont devenus Français” (Editions Lattes), an investigation which disclosed the immigration files of former migrants, who are now part of the French heritage: Apollinaire, Chagall, Aznavour…. She is the author of “les Affameurs”, who obtained the “Prix International des media” in Switzerland. She recently wrote “Le silence de Mon père”, a novel in which she questions her own identity, as a daughter of vietnamese migrants, which received the “Prix Littéraire de la Porte Dorée” and the Prix Amerigo Vespucci.
WINNER – (ENGLISH)
David Noriega & John Templon – “America’s quiet crackdown on Indian immigrants”, BuzzFeed
David Noriega is on the national desk at BuzzFeed News, where he writes feature stories and investigative projects focused mainly on immigration and Islamophobia. He was born in Bogotá to Colombian and American parents, and moved to the United States as a teenager. David went to Brown University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He won the National Association of Hispanic Journalist’s civil rights and social justice award for a story on The Remembrance Project, a group with close ties to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign dedicated to publicizing crimes committed by undocumented people.
John Templon is an investigative data reporter at BuzzFeed News. Most of his work is in acquiring, cleaning, and analyzing large datasets to unlock investigations. During his time at BuzzFeed he’s mined data to show: disparities in immigrant detention, corruption in tennis, and the militarization of police in Missouri. Prior to coming to BuzzFeed he worked at the technology start-up Narrative Science, which uses code to turn data into meaningful stories and insights.
Learn more about the Award Ceremony
2015
WINNER – PRIX TF1 (FRENCH)
François Dufour – Series: Lampedusa Migrant Crisis Explained to the Young Ones
Le Périple de Sihan, 17 ans, Africaine Réfugiée en Europe, L’ACTU; De l’Afrique à L’Europe, Destin d’un Boat People, L’ÉCO; Des Milliers d’Africains Naviguent vers Europe, MON QUOTIDIEN
Francois Dufour is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Mon Quotidien, the first daily for kids launched in France on January 5, 1995. He is also editor-in-chief of prize-winning Le Petit Quotidien and L’ACTU, both created in 1998. These three dailies have around 120,000 subscribers in France, whereof 10,000 are classes.
They are the only existing dailies for kids in Europe, even in the Western world. They come out every day of the week (except Sundays), only by subscription and are meant for kids between 7 and 17 and their parents. They also have an extra weekly supplement in English: My Weekly.
Dufour is also editor-in-chief for L’ÉCO, a business weekly to help youngsters understand the basics of economy through the everyday news. Play Bac Presse received in 2009 the Prix Dauphine-IPJ for its “simple way of explaining economy.”
Born in 1961, Dufour graduated from Sciences Po (Paris). He invented the curriculum quiz game Play Bac together with two childhood friends, Jérôme Saltet and Gaëtan Burrus, in a train between Paris and le Touquet on October 19, 1985. They then created the publishing house Éditions Play Bac in order to publish it. They are also the creators of the curriculum-based quiz decks Les Incollables sold throughout the world in more than 60 million copies, known in the USA as Brain Quest (licensed to Workman Publishing).
Years after passing his French Baccalaureat in 1979, François Dufour tried to do the same without any preparation in 2006, did poorly but succeeded. This experience is detailed in a book Comment ne pas rater son bac (Librio, 2006).
François Dufour is a board member of the World Association of Newspapers, representing the French national newspapers. Francois Dufour is the author of an essay critical to his peers: Les journalistes français sont-ils si mauvais ? (Larousse, 2009). No surprise he decided for his newsroom to commit to the Code of Ethics of the…American journalists (SPJ).
A fine connaisseur of Japan (where he lived) and the United States (he owns a flat in Manhattan), he is an Eisenhower Fellow (1998) and a Young Leader of the French-American Foundation (2005).
In France, François Dufour is a jury member of the Prix Clara, a literary award for young writers of short stories, since 2007.
Being an admirer of Nelson Mandela, he co-translated his biography written by Bill Keller, then editor-in-chief of The New York Times. The book was published in France in 2010 – by L’Actu/La Table Ronde – to celebrate the 20 years liberation of the “last hero of the 20th century.”
Francois Dufour became famous in France for tweeting the DSK arraignment from inside the court room (a scoop) in Manhattan, on May 16, 2011. He wrote about this exceptional Sofitel case the book “DSK, May 16, 2011. From the Perp walk to Rikers island” (Editions KatouMalou).
In 2013, he also wrote “The Assassination of JFK” for the 50th anniversary. According to the evidence, Francois Dufour writes: “Oswald did it alone and Ruby did it alone”.
In 2015, after 10 years of reporting about migrants from the Lampedusa island (Italy), Francois Dufour decided to write an op-ed published all around the globe (Daily Telegraph, Clarin, Hurryet, JDD, Obs, Huffington Post…). His solution to avoid all the shipwrecks and drownings is “to grant the refugee status on the other side of the Medieterranean and bring the refugees to Europe…by plane.”
Learn more about Francois Dufour
WINNER – IMMIGRATION AWARD (ENGLISH)
Maria Sacchetti– “The Unforgotten“, The Boston Globe
Maria Sacchetti covers immigration for The Boston Globe. She most recently covered the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe. She has reported on the disappearance of immigrants along US-Mexico border and was among the 2012 IRE finalists for the series, Justice in the Shadows, about the secrecy permeating the US immigration system. The series revealed the secret arrests of foreigners, including a citizen of France who died in immigration jail, hidden court records, and the unannounced release of dangerous criminals.
She also covered the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, followed a Boston student to Colombia when his father was deported, and reported on a murder trial in Ecuador. Her work has led to the release of several immigrants and the halting of deportation proceedings against others.
Prior to the Globe, she investigated the education of Latino schoolchildren in California, leading to the Latino Educational Initiative that has prepared many more students in Orange County for college.
Before that, she worked as a journalist for several years in Latin America. She has a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Massachusetts and a master’s degree in Latin American studies, with a focus on immigration and economics, from the University of Texas at Austin. She is fluent in Spanish.
Learn more about the Awards Ceremony
2014
WINNER – PRIX TF1 (FRENCH)
Jonathan Millet- “Ceuta, Douce Prison” co-directed with Loïc H. Rechi,
A moving documentary film that follows the trajectories of five migrants who leave everything to try their luck in Europe and end up in an open-air prison in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Morocco. The viewer is immersed in this prison, alongside Iqbal, Marius, Simon, Guy and Nür, and discovers their daily lives, their doubts and hopes, and their dreams of reaching Europe, so close and yet so far away. A trailer of the film is available here.
Read an interview with Jonathan Millet
WINNER – IMMIGRATION AWARD (ENGLISH)
Damien Cave– “The Way North” The New York Times, May 2014
A 39-day multimedia project with daily dispatches and photos that chronicles immigration’s impact in the middle of America, at the local level, where immigrants and established residents collide. Far from the gridlock of Washington, in the schools, churches and neighborhoods of a half-dozen states, The Way North explores the new America emerging along Interstate 35 from Laredo, Texas to Duluth, Minnesota. Cave and photographer Todd Heisler drove 4,072 miles and discovered a nation more pragmatic and welcoming than its lawmakers would have us believe.
Learn more about the Awards Ceremony
2013
WINNER – PRIX TF1 (FRENCH)
Thierry Leclère- “22 jours dans la vie d’Ogosto,” Revue XXI, April 6, 2013
Leclère’s narrative tells the story of a Moroccan civil servant, Hassan, who comes, one day, to care for Ogosto, a deceased Nigerian exile. Without having known him in his lifetime, Hassan lives twenty-two days to pay tribute to a man who dreamed of a better world and does everything he can to prevent him from falling into oblivion of anonymity.
WINNERS – IMMIGRATION AWARD (ENGLISH)
Perla Trevizo- “A Far Cry,” Times Free Press, August-October 2012
Combining images, personal accounts, and videos, Trevizo tells the story of Burundian refugees, going from the last remaining refugee camp in Tanzania to the public housing projects of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The series touches upon the effects of war on families, the hardships they face, and the opportunities found in a new land.
During the ceremony, Trevizo said that foundations support of immigration reporting is crucial, because “if [journalists] can’t understand immigration and immigrants, how are we going to explain to our readers?”
Jose Antonio Vargas- “Not Legal, Not Leaving,” TIME Magazine, June 25, 2012
A year after coming out about his undocumented status in the New York Times Magazine and attracting worldwide coverage, Vargas wrote this essay reporting on life in citizenship limbo and addressing provocative questions that everyday Americans around the country, from Alabama to Arizona, have asked him in regards to his “undocumented” status. Vargas wrote this piece a year after attracting worldwide coverage for “coming out” as undocumented in The New York Times Magazine.
Upon receiving the Prize, he explained that this is the first award he has received for his journalistic work since publically declaring his status. “I cannot think of a more important time to be a journalist. And I cannot think of a better time to be a really good journalist,” he said.
Learn more about the Awards Ceremony
2012
WINNER – PRIX TF1 (FRENCH)
Elise Vincent- “Au bon pain de Tataouine,” Le Monde, June 26, 2012
Vincent’s investigation focuses on the profile of the North Africans increasingly numerous in the bakery sector in France: three Tunisians talk about their professional career in Ile-de-France where one business out of three is buyout by a North African. Read the article in English here.
Vincent has been a speaker for one event of the French-American Foundation, The New Black Elite, in 2014.
Learn more about Elise Vincent
WINNERS – IMMIGRATION AWARD (ENGLISH)
Cindy Carcamo- “Return to Sender,” Slake: Los Angeles Magazine, February 4, 2011
The article focuses on the first 48 hours of a deportee’s life after his return to Guatemala on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight from the United States. While at a detention center in Mesa, Arizona, Carcamo had a few minutes to convince an ICE detainee to allow her to accompany him and document his time on an ICE flight to Guatemala City and onward to his village.
Learn more about Cindy Carcamo
Margaret Ebrahim & Maria Hinojosa- “Lost in Detention,” PBS Frontline & The Investigative Reporting Workshop, 2011
This documentary is dedicated to the Obama administration’s get-tough immigration policy. Viewers can investigate Obama’s enforcement strategies and journey into the secretive world of immigrant detention, while getting a penetrating look at who is being detained and what is happening to them.
Learn more about the Awards cermony