UPDATE, May 22, 2014 – This post updates with more details of the award.
The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights awarded its top journalism honor to “Rape in the Fields/Violación de un Sueño,” a documentary exposing the widespread sexual harassment and abuse of female farmworkers in the United States.
The film was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, FRONTLINE and Univision. In addition to the grand prize, the awards committee also named the documentary its 2014 Domestic Television Winner.
The judges said the film exposed the “real cost of inexpensive food.” They cited the film’s “rigorous examination of the daily terrors” women working in the agriculture industry face.
Andres Cediel accepted the award at the Newseum in Washington on behalf of all of the partners. In his remarks, Cediel said the “hard work was done by the women who came forward.”
The RFK awards recognize exemplary investigative journalism on human rights issues, as well as the causes, conditions and solutions for injustice. “Rape in the Fields” aired in English on PBS’s FRONTLINE and in Spanish on Univision. The investigation won a duPont award earlier this year and was named a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize.
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