Italy’s Paolo Borrometi is the 2019 Peter Mackler Award recipient.

Lukpan Akhmedyarov, 2012 PMA recipient, was clubbed, stabbed and shot for his reports on corruption. © Lukpan Akhmedyarov

Ilya Barabanov, 2010 PMA recipient, at work in an undated photo. © Ilya Barabonov

Karla Rivas (second from left) covers a community meeting. © Karla Rivas

Ilya Barabanov is led away by police during the riots that followed the Pussy Riot verdict on August 17, 2012 in Moscow. © Ilya Barabanov

About The Peter Mackler Award

The Peter Mackler Award honors reporters and editors who have demonstrated a commitment to fairness, accuracy and speaking truth to power, and a matching commitment to asserting the right to publish or air that story in countries where independent media is under threat.

Recipients

2019 Paolo Borrometi Rome, Italy

2018 Jovo Martinović Podgorica, Montenegro

2017 Marcos Vizcarra Culiacán, Mexico

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2019 Recipient: Paolo Borrometi

Investigative journalist Paolo Borrometi, an expert on the Sicilian mafia, is the winner of the 2019 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. He was honored at a ceremony at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism on Wednesday September 25, 2019.

Borrometi’s coverage of the Sicilian mafia has made him the target of death threats and personal attacks, including assault. Nonetheless, he has continued to report on organized crime for the Italian broadcasting network TV2000; La Spia, the news website he created in 2013; and Articolo 21, an association he heads that supports freedom of expression.

Following the award ceremony, a panel was held that addressed “The Danger of Reporting Hidden Truths.”
Moderated by Bloomberg editor Ian Fisher, the panel also included Marshall Project editor Susan Chira, Committee to Protect Journalists advocacy director Courtney C. Radsch and current Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University Andrew Rosati, who has reported for Bloomberg from Venezuela.

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