The Online News Association (ONA) chose a series on food safety by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the best investigative story published online in 2007 by a small news organization. ONA announced the award at its annual award ceremony in Toronto on Friday. Winners in other categories included Wired Magazine, the Associated Press and the Washington Post. The award for investigative reporting at a large media outlet went to ABC News.
‘It’s an honor to be mentioned with these other fine organizations and this proves that Bosnian journalists are doing some of the best work in the world in investigative reporting’ said Svjetlana Ćelić, CIN’s deputy managing editor. ‘Our goal was simple. We wanted to find out if our food is safe and we now know it is not.’
The story showed that Bosnian authorities are taking inadequate measures to protect their citizens from unsafe food. Since the series was published, hundreds of people have ended up in hospitals from health problems caused by food poisoning.
The Online News Association (ONA) is the world’s largest online media association and is based at the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Earlier this year, CIN was awarded the Global Shining Light award for investigative reporting for its series on energy traders. The award is given out by the Global Network of Investigative Journalists.
