ESPN nets four Murrow honors

We’re heading into the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in 10 days, but ESPN’s work on presenting the 2010 FIFA World Cup still is being hailed.

This week, ESPN received four 2011 national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), including the first for a sports entry in the prestigious Investigative Reporting category. ESPN also won for Audio Feature Reporting and Audio Sports Reporting in the Radio Network grouping, and for Writing in the Television Network grouping.

The Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting went to Outside The Lines’ feature “Human Trafficking & the World Cup.”

Reporter John Barr and producer Nicole Noren examined whether the presence of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa had an effect on human trafficking in the country.

Reporting confirmed that more young people were trafficked into South Africa to work in the rapidly growing sex industry prior to the World Cup.

Previous Investigative Reporting Murrow Awards went to CBS 60 Minutes (2010, 2009), ABC News (2008, 2006) and Dateline NBC (2007, 2005, 2004, 2003).

The Murrow Award for Television Writing went to ESPN’s 2010 FIFA World Cup presentation, particularly Jeff Sarokin’s trio of short video essays on South African history and culture.

Two pieces featured on ESPN Radio’s The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap won Murrow Awards, as well.

To learn more on these features, click here.

RTDNA is the world’s largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism, honoring outstanding achievements with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971. The RTDNA Awards Dinner is in New York on October 10.