From National Journal’s Deputy Editor Patrick B. Pexton:

Charlie Green and I are thrilled to pass on that our own Corine Hegland has joined the likes of Molly Ivins, Anthony Lewis, Amy Goodman and other distinguished print journalists by winning the 2006 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for her February 2006 stories on the Guantanamo detainees. The award is given out annually by Hunter College in New York City.

The college picks four or five winners per year, and Corine and National Journal were honored along with a Mother Jones story on man’s harmful effects on the world’s oceans, the Los Angeles Times for exposing the US government’s uranium mining on Navajo land and subsequent abandonment of the Navajo people when radiation began to kill them; and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for portraying the grave plight and remarkable resiliency of AIDS orphans in Haiti.

The college also gave a special lifetime achievement award to broadcaster-columnist Amy Goodman.

Corine will receive the award in New York on Tuesday April 17.

Here’s what the college said about Corine’s work in its press release put out today:

“Guantanamo’s Grip” by Corine Hegland, National Journal

Who Are the Detainees?

Intrigued by the rising number of hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay, National Journal Staff Correspondent Corine Hegland set about to discover who exactly the Guantánamo detainees were — guileful terrorists? desperate innocent men?

The resulting investigation scrutinized 6000 pages of court documents to create a thorough database on 132 of the detainees and partial information on 314 others. Their findings: according to the government’s own records, most of the men weren’t known terrorists, weren’t captured on the battlefield, and weren’t even accused of fighting the United States.

Join us in congratulating Corine. We’re very proud.