Payne Award winners Paul DeMain, News From Indian Country; Randi Moody, Mount Hood Community College's Advocate; and Megan O'Matz, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Photos: Jack Liu

For The South Florida Sun-Sentinel there were plenty of reasons to stop pursuing the story. Plenty of roadblocks to getting at it. Governor Jeb Bush’s threats of subpoenas, state agencies fighting public records requests, the economic pressures associated with any in-depth investigation—plenty of reasons.

But there was one reason to keep going: the responsibility of the press to serve as the public’s watchdog. The newspaper saw a vulnerable group whose interests needed defending and government agency that needed to be held accountable. With a dogged investigative reporting that culminated in a hard-hitting series revealing significant failures by the state of Florida’s Department of Children and Families, the newspaper did its job.

The series and its commitment to maintaining journalism integrity earned the news organization a 2003 Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism. The Payne Awards were established at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication by Ancil Payne, a longtime Northwest leader in broadcast journalism. The Payne Awards honor journalists who encourage public trust in the media by courageously practicing the highest standards of their profession in the face of political or economic pressures. The winners were honored on May 22, 2003, as part of the Ruhl Symposium on Ethics in Journalism at the School.

As the 2003 professional winner, the judges chose Paul DeMain, editor and publisher of News From Indian Country. DeMain was honored for “doggedly pursuing the truth, taking a courageous stand and acting with integrity in the face of political pressures.” DeMain spent years investigating Leonard Peltier’s involvement in the 1975 murders of two federal agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation and the murder of Annie Mae Pictou-Aquash that same year. In 2002, DeMain wrote “Peltier Exposed,” which used grand jury testimony and background information from informants in which DeMain concluded that Peltier was guilty. In January of this year, a South Dakota grand jury reopened the investigation of Pictou-Aquash’s murder, and in March, two indictments were handed down.

The 2003 college-university award winner is the staff of student journalists of The Advocate, Mount Hood Community College’s student newspaper. Judges honored them for “their careful consideration of the pros and cons of their College’s proposed bond measure, their deliberate approach to The Advocate’s editorial opposing the measure, and the courage of their position in the face of possible elimination of the journalism program if the measure failed.” The College’s administration was publicly unhappy with the editorial’s stance. The editorial was the only public opposition against the measure, and The Advocate was the only news organization—student or professional—to oppose the bond. The bond measure was defeated.

JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, was the recipient of a special citation for “its courage and honesty in turning the microscope on its own profession by emphasizing ethics in reporting medical studies.” JAMA devoted an entire issue to peer review of medical studies and concluded that, to maintain the integrity of the journals, it needed a standard requiring authors’ full disclosure of financial conflicts of interest in medical studies and study sponsorships.

“The judges were impressed by the courage demonstrated by all the nominees,” says Dean Tim Gleason. “One trend in this year’s nominations raised red flags about the current climate. We received a record number of nominations for journalists who either resigned or were fired over ethical conflicts-of-interest in newsrooms. We should all be concerned when serious journalists are resigning or being fired for attempting to protect the autonomy, independence and integrity of the newsroom.”