Although ProPublica has won two Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other journalism awards, we’ve never won a Peabody Award. That changed today when ProPublica, This American Life and Fundación MEPI were honored with a Peabody for our joint “What Happened At Dos Erres” / “Finding Oscar: Massacre, Memory and Justice in Guatemala” project.
The three news organizations worked together to tell the moving story of Oscar Alfredo Ramírez Castañeda. ProPublica’s Sebastian Rotella and Fundación MEPI’s Ana Arana wrote the account of the slaughter of more than 250 people in a small Guatemalan village and how one determined prosecutor eventually brought some of the perpetrators to justice. This American Life producer Brian Reed, freelance journalist Habiba Nosheen and Ira Glass and his TAL team brought the story to life for radio.
In comments about the story, the Peabody judges said, "Though this masterful documentary illuminates a larger event, a Guatemalan civil-war massacre, its dramatic heart is the astounding story of a child survivor of the 1982 atrocity who learns the man he believed to be his father had in fact been commander of the military unit that wiped out most of his village.”
The Peabody Awards recognize outstanding achievement in electronic media. See a complete list of the winners here.
