The Ridenhour Prizes are awards in four categories given annually in recognition of those "who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society".

History

The awards are presented by

The Nation Institute Type Media Center (formerly The Nation Institute) is a nonprofit media organization that was previously associated with ''The Nation'' magazine. It sponsors fellows, hosts forums, publishes books and investigative reporting, and awards several ann ...

and The Fertel Foundation in recognition of Ron Ridenhour, the

Vietnam War veteran A Vietnam veteran is an individual who performed active Army, ground, Navy, naval, or Air force, air service in the South Vietnam, Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The term has been used to describe veterans who served in the armed fo ...

who exposed the My Lai Massacre. Each prize carries a $10,000 stipend. The prizes were first awarded in 2004.

Prize categories

* The Ridenhour Courage Prize * The Ridenhour Book Prize * The Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize * The Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize (since 2011)

Past winners

The Ridenhour Courage Prize

* 2004:

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released th ...

* 2005:

Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American investigative journalist and political writer. He gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer ...

* 2006:

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem ( ; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social movement, social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ...

* 2007:

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

* 2008:

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers; June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Council ...

* 2009:

Bob Herbert Robert Herbert (born March 7, 1945) is an American journalist and former op-ed columnist for ''The New York Times''. His column was syndicated to other newspapers around the country. Herbert frequently writes on poverty, the Iraq War, racism a ...

* 2010:

Howard Zinn Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian and a veteran of World War II. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn ...

(posthumous) * 2011:

Russ Feingold Russell Dana Feingold ( ; born March 2, 1953) is an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Senate, United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, h ...

* 2012:

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American civil rights activist and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

* 2013:

James Hansen James Edward Hansen (born March 29, 1941) is an American climatologist. He is an adjunct professor directing the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions of the The Earth Institute, Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is best ...

* 2014: Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr. * 2015:

James Risen James Risen (born April 27, 1955) is an American journalist for '' The Intercept''. He previously worked for ''The New York Times'' and before that for ''Los Angeles Times''. He has written or co-written many articles concerning U.S. governmen ...

* 2016:

Jamie Kalven James Ewan Kalven (born 1948) is an American journalist, author, human rights activist, and community organizer based in Chicago, Illinois. He is the founder of the Invisible Institute, a non-profit journalism organization based in Chicago's ...

* 2017:

Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith (born September 18, 1950) is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in ''The West Wing'' (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus i ...

* 2018:

Tarana Burke Tarana Burke (born September 12, 1973) is an American activist from New York City, who started the MeToo movement. In 2006, Burke began Me Too as a youth program for junior and high school students with the goal of addressing the rampant sexual ...

* 2019:

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

(donated all of prize money to

Hungarian Spectrum ''Hungarian Spectrum'' was a daily blog from 2007 to 2021, covering current political and social developments in Hungary. Created in 2007 by historian Eva S. Balogh, it came to an end with her death, on November 30, 2021. History ''Hungarian S ...

) * 2020:

Denis Hayes Denis Allen Hayes (born August 29, 1944) is an environmental advocate and an advocate for solar power. He rose to prominence in 1970 as the coordinator for the first Earth Day. Hayes founded the Earth Day Network and expanded it to more tha ...

* 2021:

José Andrés José Ramón Andrés Puerta (; born 13 July 1969) is a Spanish-American chef and restaurateur. Born in Spain, he moved to the United States in the early 1990s and since then, he has opened restaurants in several American cities. He has won a num ...

* 2022:

Anita Hill Anita Faye Hill (born July 30, 1956) is an American lawyer, educator and author. She is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university's Heller School for Social Policy and ...

* 2023:

Jamie Raskin Jamin Ben Raskin (born December 13, 1962) is an American attorney, law professor, and politician serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Maryland's 8th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Demo ...

The Ridenhour Book Prize

* 2004:

Deborah Scroggins Deborah Scroggins (November 27, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American journalist and author. She heads the ''Research and Analysis Directorate'', Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Early life Deborah Lane Scroggins was ...

, for ''Emma's War: An Aid Worker, Radical Islam, and the Politics of Oil – A True Story of Love and Death in the Sudan'' * 2005:

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is an American journalist whose works focus on the marginalized members of society: adolescents living in poverty, prostitutes, women in prison, etc. She is best known for her 2003 non-fiction book '' Random Family''. She was ...

, for ''Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx'' * 2006:

Anthony Shadid Anthony Shadid (September 26, 1968 – February 16, 2012) was a foreign correspondent for ''The New York Times'' based in Baghdad and Beirut who won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010.Rajiv Chandrasekaran Rajiv Chandrasekaran is an American journalist. He is a senior correspondent and associate editor at ''The Washington Post'', where he has worked since 1994. Life He grew up mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended Stanford University, w ...

, for '' Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone,'' * 2008: James Scurlock, for ''Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit'' * 2009:

Jane Mayer Jane Meredith Mayer (born 1955) is an American investigative journalist who has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1995. She has written for the publication about money in politics; government prosecution of whistleblowers; the Un ...

, for '' The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into A War on American Ideals'' * 2010:

Joe Sacco Joe Sacco (; born October 2, 1960) is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is credited as the first artist to practice rigorous, investigative journalism using the comics form, also referred to as comics journalism. His groundbrea ...

, for ''

Footnotes in Gaza ''Footnotes in Gaza'' is a journalistic graphic narrative by Joe Sacco about bloody incidents between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza during the Suez Crisis. It was published in 2009 by Henry Holt and Company in the U.S. and Jonathan Cape in t ...

'' * 2011:

Wendell Potter Wendell Potter (born July 16, 1951) is an American advocate for health insurance payment reform, ''New York Times'' bestselling author, and former health insurance industry communications director. A critic of HMOs and the tactics used by health ...

, for ''Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Healthcare and Deceiving Americans'' * 2012: Ali H. Soufan, for ''The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al‐Qaeda'' * 2013: Seth Rosenfeld, for ''Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power'' * 2014:

Sheri Fink Sheri Fink is an American journalist who writes about health, medicine and science. She received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting "for a story that chronicles the urgent life-and-death decisions made by one hospital’s exhaus ...

, for '' Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital'' * 2015: Anand Gopal, for ''No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes'' * 2016: Jill Leovy, for ''Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America'' * 2017:

Heather Ann Thompson Heather Ann Thompson is an American historian, author, activist, professor, and speaker from Detroit, Michigan. Thompson won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for History, the 2016 Bancroft Prize, and five other awards for her work '' Blood in the Water: ...

, for '' Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy'' * 2018: Lauren Markham, for ''The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life'' * 2019:

Eliza Griswold Eliza Griswold (born February 9, 1973) is a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist and poet. Griswold is currently a contributing writer to ''The New Yorker'' and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. She is the author ...

, for ''Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America'' * 2020:

Chanel Miller Chanel Miller (born June 12, 1992) is an American writer and artist based in San Francisco, California and New York City. She was known anonymously after she was sexually assaulted on the campus of Stanford University in January 2015 by Brock ...

for '' Know My Name: A Memoir'' * 2021: Claudio Saunt for '' Unworthy Republic: The dispossession of Native Americans and the road to Indian Territory'' * 2022: Heather McGhee for ''The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together'' * 2023:

Lea Ypi Lea Ypi (born 8 September 1979) is an Albanian academic and author. She is a professor of political theory at the London School of Economics. Background and early life Ypi was born in Tirana, the eldest child of Xhaferr Ypi and Vjollca Veli, ...

for '' Free: Coming of Age at the End of History''

The Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize

* 2004: Joseph Wilson * 2005: Kristen Breitweiser * 2006: Rick S. Piltz * 2007: Donald Vance * 2008: Matthew Diaz * 2009: Thomas Tamm * 2010: Matthew Hoh * 2011:

Thomas Andrews Drake Thomas Andrews Drake (born 1957) is a former senior executive of the National Security Agency (NSA), a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, and a whistleblower. In 2010, the government alleged that Drake mishandled do ...

* 2012: Eileen Foster and

Daniel L. Davis Daniel L. Davis is a retired United States Army officer and an analyst of United States foreign policy. He was one of the earliest military officers to publicly criticize the War in Afghanistan. Early life and education Davis was raised in Dallas ...

* 2013:

Jose Antonio Vargas Jose Antonio Vargas (born February 3, 1981) is a journalist, filmmaker, and immigration rights activist. Born in the Philippines and raised in the United States from the age of twelve, he was part of ''The Washington Post'' team that won the Pu ...

* 2014:

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

and

Laura Poitras Laura Poitras (; born February 2, 1964) is an American director and producer of documentary films. Poitras has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ''Citizenfour'', about Edwa ...

* 2015: Aicha Elbasri * 2016: Mona Hanna-Attisha * 2017: Daniela Vargas * 2018: Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto * 2019: Dr. Scott Allen, Dr. Pamela McPherson, and Scott Shuchart * 2020: Dr.

Rick A. Bright Rick Arthur Bright is an American immunologist, vaccine researcher, and public health official. He was the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) from 2016 to 2020. In May 2020, he filed a whistleblower ...

* 2021:

Cariol Horne Cariol Holloman-Horne (previously known as Cariol Horne) is an American former police officer who was fired from the Buffalo Police Department and lost her pension after she physically stopped a fellow officer from chokeholding a handcuffed sus ...

* 2022:

Anika Collier Navaroli Anika Collier Navaroli is an American researcher, writer, and lawyer who is a senior fellow at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Formerly, she worked on the safety policy team at Twitter. She is known for coming forward as a ...

* 2023: Dawn Wooten

The Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize

* 2011: Julia Bacha,

Ronit Avni Ronit Avni is a Canadian entrepreneur, tech founder, human rights advocate, and Peabody Award-winning film director and producer. Early life and education Avni was born and raised in Canada. She graduated with honors with an A.B. in politica ...

and Rula Salameh, for ''

Budrus Budrus () is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 31 kilometers northwest of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of ...

'' * 2012: Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon, for '' Semper Fi: Always Faithful'' * 2013:

Kirby Dick Kirby Bryan Dick (born August 23, 1952) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Best Docume ...

and

Amy Ziering Amy Ziering (born 1962 in Massachusetts) is an American film producer and director. Mostly known for her work in documentary films, she is a regular collaborator of director Kirby Dick; they co-directed 2002's ''Derrida (film), Derrida'' and 202 ...

, for ''

The Invisible War ''The Invisible War'' is a 2012 American documentary film written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering and Tanner King Barklow about sexual assault in the United States military. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, ...

'' * 2014: Dawn Porter, for ''

Gideon's Army ''Gideon's Army'' is a 2013 American documentary film about three public defenders in the Southern United States. The movie is directed by Dawn Porter. Its title comes from '' Gideon v. Wainwright'', which required that indigent criminal defend ...

'' * 2015:

, for ''

Citizenfour ''Citizenfour'' is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10, 2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014, a ...

'' * 2016:

Joshua Oppenheimer Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer (born September 23, 1974) is an American film director based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is known for his Oscar-nominated films '' The Act of Killing'' (2012) and ''The Look of Silence'' (2014). Oppenheimer was a 1997 ...

, for ''

The Look of Silence ''The Look of Silence'' (, "Silence") is a 2014 internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Joshua Oppenheimer about the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. The film is a companion piece to his 2012 documentary '' The Act of K ...

'' * 2017:

Sonia Kennebeck Sonia Kennebeck is a film director known for focusing on whistleblowers and national security issues, including '' United States vs. Reality Winner'' and '' Enemies of the State''. In 2017 she received The Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize for '' ...

, for ''

National Bird This is a list of national birds, including official birds of overseas territories and other states described as nations. Most species in the list are officially designated. Some species hold only an "unofficial" status. The column is marked a ...

'' * 2018: Joe Piscatella, for '' Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower'' * 2019:

Alexandria Bombach Alexandria Bombach is an American filmmaker. Career Bombach is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. They graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. In 2009, they founded the production company, Red Reel. Their first film, ''23 Feet'' (2011), "c ...

, for ''

On Her Shoulders ''On Her Shoulders'' is a 2018 American documentary film. It was directed by Alexandria Bombach and produced by Hayley Pappas, Brock Williams and Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown under the banner of RYOT Films. The film follows Iraqi Yazidi human right ...

'' * 2020:

Nanfu Wang Nanfu Wang (born 1985) is a Chinese-born American film director, producer, and editor. Her debut film ''Hooligan Sparrow'' premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 201 ...

and Jialing Zhang, for ''

One Child Nation ''One Child Nation'' is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang about the fallout of China's one-child policy that lasted from 1979 to 2015. The documentary is made up of various interviews with former village c ...

'' * 2021: Ramona Diaz, for '' A Thousand Cuts'' * 2022: Stanley Nelson Jr. and Traci A. Curry, for ''

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

'' * 2023: Emma Tildes and

Tia Lessin Tia Lessin is an American documentary filmmaker. Lessin has produced and directed documentaries, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary, three Emmy Awards, two primetime Emmy Nominations, the duPont Columbia Award, and the Sund ...

for ''

The Janes ''The Janes'' is a 2022 American documentary film. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2022, and was released on HBO Max on June 8, the month after a leaked draft opinion for ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'' was ...

Special Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction

* 2009:

Nick Turse Nick Turse (born 1975) is an American investigative journalist, historian, and author. He is the associate editor and research director of the blog TomDispatch and a fellow at The Nation Institute. Education Turse earned an MA in history from ...

References

External links

The Ridenhour Prizes official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridenhour Prizes American humanitarian and service awards Awards established in 2004 Whistleblowing American non-fiction literary awards American documentary film awards 2004 establishments in the United States Awards established in 2011 2011 establishments in the United States