Pulitzer Center Update

Seattle Times wins OJA for Pulitzer-Supported 'Disappearing Daughters'

October 19, 2020 | Project news, Awards
By
Naomi Andu
A cross with the pink sign “Ni Una Más” or “Not One More” sits at the Paso del Norte International Bridge, which connects Juárez and El Paso, Texas. “Ciudad Juárez has been a very resilient city battered by gender violence,” says Verónica Corchado, director of the Municipal Institute of Women in Juárez. “From 1993 — when they started registering the cases — until today, around 1,700 women have been murdered as a result of gender violence.” Local academics and activists have helped compile this data. Image by Erika Schultz. Mexico, 2020.

A cross with the pink sign “Ni Una Más” or “Not One More” sits at the Paso del Norte International Bridge, which connects Juárez and El Paso, Texas. “Ciudad Juárez has been a very resilient city battered by gender violence,” says Verónica Corchado, director of the Municipal Institute of Women in Juárez. “From 1993 — when they started registering the cases — until today, around 1,700 women have been murdered as a result of gender violence.” Local academics and activists have helped compile this data. Image by Erika Schultz. Mexico, 2020.

"Disappearing Daughters," The Seattle Times' project supported by the Pulitzer Center and the International Women’s Media Foundation, won an Online Journalism Award in the Feature category for medium-sized newsrooms. 

Through photos, videos and poetry, the interactive project explores the pervasive issue of femicide—"violence against women because they are women"—in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The city, which sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is widely recognized as one of the most dangerous in the world. In 2019, the Mexican government identified 1,006 victims of gender-based violence, including 31 in the Juárez area. The true number of missing and murdered women is unknown.

“Disappearing Daughters” zooms in on a handful of women and girls targeted by gender-based violence, humanizing them and putting names, faces, and stories to statistics. Also featured are the mothers and activists fighting for accountability and change.

The Feature award “honors excellence in online journalism presented in a single package or story that shows significant depth, insight and new understanding of a story or topic.”

For a full list of this year’s winners and finalists, please click here.