Sunday Times wins award for investigative journalism

07 June 2015 - 02:00 By Sunday Times

The Sunday Times investigation unit has won first prize in the Dusko Jovanovic Foundation award for investigative journalism for their Cato Manor "death squad" series. The prize is awarded every four years in honour of Montenegrin journalist Dusko Jovanovic, a vocal government critic gunned down in front of the offices of his newspaper in 2004.The stories by Rob Rose, Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstatter provided detailed evidence of dozens of suspicious killings by detectives from the Cato Manor organised crime unit.story_article_left1This sparked an investigation by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate that uncovered more suspicious slayings by the same detectives. They are expected to go on trial for murder later this year.The Sunday Times team's winning entry highlighted threats faced by their sources - three have already been shot, two fatally.Their entry also detailed how the Cato Manor detectives planted misinformation in other media to drum up public support.The second prize went to Serbian journalist Stevan Dojcinovic for his investigation into a Balkans cocaine cartel.The third prize went to Egyptian journalist Ahmed El Shamy for his reports on domestic rape and sexual abuse in Egypt.The award was previously won by Washington Post correspondent Andrew Higgins...

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