Sentinel journalists earn state, national honors
SARASOTA — Journalists from the Orlando Sentinel won 16 awards Thursday in the Florida Society of News Editors’ annual journalism contest. And three Sentinel journalists received national recognition for their coverage of anti-gay discrimination in Florida voucher schools.
In the FSNE contest, competing against the state’s largest newspapers, the Sentinel earned six firstplace awards, including three related to coverage of the COVID19 pandemic.
A team of journalists that included Gabrielle Russon, Dewayne Bevil, Joe Burbank, Wesley Alden and Katie Christiansen won first-place in Breaking News for their reports on the reopening of Walt Disney World after it closed temporarily at the start of the pandemic. Alden and former heath reporter Naseem Miller won first place in Live Video for an episode of “Orlando Sentinel Now” that answered viewers’ questions about coronavirus. Photographer Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda won first place in Feature Photography for a series of photos called “Images in a pandemic.”
Other first-place awards went to Kevin Spear in Beat Reporting for his stories on the environment, J.C. Carnahan in Sports Reporting for a portfolio of his work, and Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio in Spanish Language Features/Entertainment Reporting for a story about a 101-year-old Puerto Rico veteran.
The newspaper also won four second-place awards — for Community Leadership, News Columns, Live Video and News Interactive — and six third-place awards — for Beat Reporting,
Enterprise Reporting, Editorials, Sports Photography and Spanish-language News Reporting and Spanish-Language Sports Reporting.
Meanwhile, reporters Leslie Postal, Annie Martin and Kate Santich received nation recognition for their reporting from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists in its 2021 Excellence in Journalism Awards.
The trio of journalists won the group’s Excellence in Education Coverage Award for an investigation that found 83 schools that receive money from the Florida
Scholarship Program could refuse to admit LGBTQ students or could expel them if their sexual orientation or gender identity were discovered. The reporting also disclosed that some schools also refuse to educate students whose parents are gay or to hire staff who are gay.
“I’m happy that our journalists received recognition for their excellent work because they have been through so much in 2020, one of the most challenging years for us ever,” said Julie Anderson, the Sentinel’s Editor-in-Chief. “It’s gratifying.”