Detroit wins prestigious IRE medal for mayor series

The Free Press gets the Investigative Reporters and Editors award for its probe of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, in a tie with McClatchy Co.'s Washington bureau, the journalism trade association just announced.

In their citation, the judges say: "Through careful analysis of public records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the reporters verified a trove of text messages and then, with the aid of other Free Press reporters, methodically demolished the mayor's carefully built façade of lies, pay-offs and cronyism -- a compelling example of investigative reporting's ability to reveal abuses of power."

In September, seven months after the Freep report, Kilpatrick pled guilty to two felony counts of obstructing justice.

Related: The Freep's first-day Kilpatrick story

McClatchy was honored for "Guantanamo: Beyond the Law," an expose of abuses at the U.S. government's Guantanamo Bay prison.

The awards recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year, IRE says. The contest covers 15 categories across media platforms and a range of market sizes. The contest, which began in 1979, received more than 380 entries this year.