IndyStar journalists to be honored at Newseum for USA Gymnastics investigation

Four IndyStar journalists will be honored next month in Washington, D.C., at the Newseum's Free Expression Awards for their investigation of USA Gymnastics and sexual abuse.

Reporters Mark Alesia, Tim Evans and Marisa Kwiatkowski, as well as investigations editor Steve Berta, will be among 13 journalists recognized for breaking "stories and silence about systemic and pervasive sexual misconduct." Photographer Robert Scheer also worked on the project.

IndyStar's investigation led to more than 250 women coming forward to accuse longtime USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. Nassar is serving a prison sentence of up to 175 years. The prosecutor in the case credited IndyStar and the first woman who came forward by name, Rachael Denhollander, for "what finally started this reckoning."

The investigation also led to the resignation of former USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny and the entire board of directors after IndyStar revealed that the organization had a policy of not reporting all sexual assault accusations to authorities. Some of the accused went on to abuse other girls.

Other Free Expression Awards honorees are from The New Yorker, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Those organizations exposed sexual misconduct accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly, CBS News anchor Charlie Rose and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama.

In announcing the awards, the Newseum said, "The tenacious reporting by dozens of journalists spurred resignations and firings of powerful men, and inspired hundreds of thousands of people to reveal their own stories of harassment and abuse on social media using #MeToo. Backed by the courage of the victims who spoke out, these journalists’ work inspired a movement for transformative change."

The awards will be given April 17 at a reception and dinner. Featured honorees will be Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

Smith and Carlos raised their fists on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics in protest of racial inequality, which "still resonates 50 years later."

Sulzberger, former publisher of The New York Times, will receive the Life Time Achievement Award for "spearheading innovative print and online initiatives" and "providing readers with innumerable examples of momentous journalism."