Hunter College announced today that “Firestone and the Warlord,” a collaboration between ProPublica and PBS Frontline, had won its James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.
The project, reported by T. Christian Miller and Jonathan Jones, revealed that the tire company had struck a deal with Liberian warlord Charles Taylor during Liberia’s brutal civil war. Taylor would benefit from Firestone’s money, resources and prestige while the tire company would gain protection from the warlord so that it could resume the operations of its vast rubber plantation in the country.
Winners will be honored on April 24 at a ceremony and panel discussion at Hunter College in New York City.