Izzy Award for Independent Media to be Shared by Texas Observer, Reporters Gwynne Hogan and Haidee Chu, and Filmmaker Abby Martin and Empire Files

By Dave Maley, March 31, 2026

Award ceremony will be held on Wednesday, April 22.

The Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) in the Roy H. Park School of Communications is honored to announce that the 18th annual Izzy Award “for outstanding achievement in independent media” will be shared by news outlet Texas Observer ; journalists Gwynne Hogan and Haidee Chu, writing for The City ; and filmmaker Abby Martin and Empire Files for the documentary Earth’s Greatest Enemy . The winners are being recognized for undertaking and producing path-breaking and in-depth investigative reporting in 2025.

The award ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. on April 22 in Emerson Suites and is free and open to the public.

Texas Observer
The Texas Observer will be honored for its significant reporting about some of the hardest parts of Texas life, including the rash of overdoses in Austin that connect the tragedy to the backward war-on-drugs policies in the state; an ICE prosecutor operating a white supremacist X account; and state and federal agencies’ mislabeling of Venezuelan migrants as Tren de Aragua gang members.

The Texas Observer has been a leading non-commercial, independent news outlet in Texas since 1954. In 2023, it nearly shut down just shy of its 70th anniversary, but a remarkable crowdfunding effort, led by its workers, saved the nonprofit publication. Since then, the outlet has regained its footing and doubled down on its role as the go-to source for both investigative reporting and fearless political and cultural coverage in a state that—for better or worse—shapes the nation’s policies more than many others. Further, the Texas Observer uses its platform to publish first-person writing by those directly harmed by state policies and employs cutting-edge, open-source investigative techniques to identify political extremists.

Woman with long dark hair in front of a plant

Haidee Chu

Gwynne Hogan and Haidee Chu, reporting for The City
Senior reporter Gwynne Hogan and data journalist Haidee Chu collaborated to make the first reports about ICE’s use of 26 Federal Plaza in New York City as a detention center back in May 2025. This work is acknowledged for its notable and first-of-its-kind reporting. Their migrant-centered reporting showed readers some of the first photos of ICE arrests in NYC, capturing the human story of these inhumane events. Hogan and Chu revealed that even when migrants were showing up for court dates or immigration check-ins, they risked being arrested by ICE, detained, and deported. Meanwhile, if such appointments were skipped, the same migrants were determined “criminals,” and subject to deportation anyway.

Gwynne Hogan

Hogan, with the help of data reporter Haidee Chu, published a series of groundbreaking articles that established facts on the ground and directly led to reforms. Using leaked videos and data analysis, they proved that migrants were being held for days at 26 Federal Plaza in inhumane conditions, without access to food, lawyers, or bathrooms. The DHS flatly denied migrants were being held there, but the story showed that by July 2025, 415 people had been held there for two days or more. The City compiled its own database to use as a reference point, drawing details from ground reporting as well as court records. When a federal judge ordered ICE to curtail such detentions and improve conditions, he cited the evidence exclusively reported by The City . They revealed the truth in the face of government denials, and they shaped the narrative with empathy and fairness.

Abby Martin and Empire Files
Abby Martin and her media outlet Empire Files will be honored for the intensive work on the documentary Earth’s Greatest Enemy . This self-produced film underscores the U.S. military as not only earth’s greatest enemy, but also as its greatest intersectional issue on the global stage. While exempt from international climate agreements, and rarely scrutinized in establishment reporting, the Pentagon is the world’s single largest institutional polluter — spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe.

The film follows and intertwines the stories of those affected by the U.S. military in their health, their livelihoods, and their protests. Not only did Martin travel across the world, interviewing vendors of military-grade weapons and attending a meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP), she spoke with scores of homeless veterans, attended protests organized by veterans, and talked to people with lifelong health conditions caused by the US military, creating a full picture of the harm caused to all living things on the planet. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, Martin’s film challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences.

This year’s Izzy judges would also like to recognize three outlets for honorable mentions that were in the running for their important work last year: Prism , 404 Media , and Drop Site News.

I.F. “Izzy” Stone
The Izzy Award is named after I. F. “Izzy” Stone, the muckraking journalist who launched I.F. Stone’s Weekly in 1953 and challenged McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, racial injustice, and government deceit. This year’s judges included previous PCIM director Raza Rumi, Esther Kaplan, Victor Pickard, Patricia Rodriguez, Robin Andersen, Eleanor Goldfield, and PCIM’s first cohort of student judges, Vivian Rose, Elle Wilcox, Jackie Vickery, Prakriti Panwar, and Ryan Johnson. The nominations and judging process were overseen by current PCIM Distinguished Director and Professor of Journalism Mickey Huff, and Marcy Sutherland, PCIM’s Communication and Research Coordinator. We extend our gratitude to the founding director of PCIM and longtime Izzy judge Jeff Cohen for his 17 years of service to the Izzys as he retired from the judges’ panel this year.

The presentation of the Izzy Awards on April 22 marks the culmination of this year’s newly expanded Izzy Fest 2026 activities that will span two full days on campus. More information is available at ParkIndyMedia.org. This event is free and open to the public and is cosponsored by Project Censored, Project Look Sharp, and the Department of Journalism at Ithaca College.

For more information, contact PCIM at mhuff2@ithaca.edu or msutherland1@ithaca.edu.