The series “Distressed” examined the life of Juan Gabriel Torres, whose ex-girlfriend and children built this memorial near the spot in Las Cruces where he was shot to death by police officers in 2016.
A journalistic project led by NMPolitics.net has won a national investigative reporting award for shining light on the state of the behavioral health system in Southern New Mexico.
The National Federation of Press Women announced Friday that a team of journalists led by NMPolitics.net won first place in the group’s 2018 communications contest for investigative reporting for the 2017 series “Distressed.” The series was the result of a months-long collaboration between NMPolitics.net, the Las Cruces Sun-News and KRWG that sought to quantify problems with the region’s struggling behavioral health system, make the issue tangible through strong storytelling, and seek solutions.
It’s the second time in three years that NMPolitics.net has competed against journalists from across the United States and won the group’s national investigative reporting award. In 2016, NMPolitics.net won the award for shining light on a possible conflict of interest Tim Keller, currently Albuquerque’s mayor, had when he was a state senator.
“NMPolitics.net has become known nationally for its investigative reporting,” said editor and publisher Heath Haussamen. “We’re grateful for the newest recognition from the National Federation of Press Women. I hope the work of this team of journalists sparks change that helps improve health care for some of the most vulnerable people in our community.”
The behavioral health series has been widely recognized. Earlier this month, the series joined a Netflix documentary, a New York Times bestselling book and The Players’ Tribune, among others, in receiving national awards from the organization Mental Health America. The awards recognize “journalists, authors, digital platforms, media outlets, television shows and filmmakers that have not shied away from the issues of mental illness and addiction – and in doing so, have educated, informed, and helped break down stigma and shame around these issues,” according to a news release from Mental Health America.
And in March, the series took home the New Mexico Press Women’s first-place award for investigative reporting.
“What a wonderfully thought out and written series,” a judge in that competition wrote. “…Really well done work and the person who came up with this idea and mapped it out should get an extra pat on the back for having the guts to put this together, gather the team and lead them to a touchdown.”
The series has also twice won national awards in competitions among newspapers in the USA Today Network, which includes the Sun-News.
Reporters Carlos Andres López and Diana Alba Soular and photojournalist Robin Zielinski from the Sun-News collaborated with Haussamen to produce a four-story, two-video package on behavioral health, which published in November 2017. KRWG’s Anthony Moreno also contributed reporting to the series.
The series was made possible by a $5,000 grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
Read the behavioral health series, “Distressed,” by clicking here.