Investigative Reporters and Editors

(June 24, 2026) — Josh Hinkle, KXAN, has been re-elected as president of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Board of Directors. Cindy Galli of MS NOW is the new vice president. The IRE Board elected officers for 2026-27 at a meeting on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

The IRE Board of Directors will elect its new Executive Committee members during a Zoom meeting at 4:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, June 24, 2026. Registration is required. You may sign up at this link. On June 20, 2026, seven members were elected to the board. Board members are elected by IRE membership for two-year terms: seven seats during even-numbered years and six seats in odd-numbered years.

June 20, 2026 — IRE members elected seven journalists to the Board of Directors at the annual IRE 2026 Conference in Washington, D.C., and two journalists for the contested seats on the Contest Committee.

Blocking the release of an internal investigative report that showed that police officer Chuck Ternent confessed to exchanging inappropriate messages with a 17-year-old girl he met at a community policing event in 2015 has earned Allegany County Attorney T. Lee Beeman, Jr. and Allegany County, Maryland the 2026 Golden Padlock Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors.

IRE has awarded the Don Bolles Medal for 2026 to Julie K. Brown for her dogged, indefatigable and fearless investigative reporting on Jeffrey Epstein and the powerful forces that tried to stop it. Brown’s 2018 series “Perversion of Justice,” published in the Miami Herald, exposed the unusual and special treatment Epstein received after a local criminal investigation found evidence of his sex-trafficking ring.

Adam Rhodes, Training Director & Managing Editor It’s Pride Month so of *course* I’m going to shout out “LGBTQ+ Data Reporting and Visualization,” which is a great session if you want to cover LGTQ+ better but also how to better use key data for your next big investigation.

IRE members can now volunteer to mentor fellow journalists on our new online platform, which replaces our former partnership with journalismmentors.com. Only active IRE members will be listed as mentors. (Information from your member profile will become part of your mentor page, as well.) This is a public page, so mentors can expect to receive inquiries from journalists outside IRE, as well. Here are instructions for signing up. Problems? Please email help@ire.org with details.

By Jeremy Duda, Axios On June 2, 1976, Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles was backing out of a parking space at Phoenix’s Clarendon Hotel, where he’d been lured for a fake meeting, when a dynamite bomb exploded under his car. He used his last words to tell paramedics and bystanders who he thought was responsible, then clung to life for 11 agonizing days before succumbing to his injuries. In response, the Fourth Estate mobilized in a way it never had before and hasn’t since.

Investigative Reporters and Editors has named its finalists for the 2026 Golden Padlock Award, honoring the most secretive public agency or official in the U.S. The 2026 award celebrates four finalists for their outstanding achievement in the art of keeping public interest information hidden from the public. “Undermining the public’s right to know requires sophistication and ingenuity,” said Golden Padlock committee chair Robert Cribb.

The staff of Investigative Reporters & Editors has named Liz Lucas, former IRE senior training director, as the recipient of the inaugural Diana Fuentes Service to IRE Award, named in honor of IRE’s late executive director to recognize outstanding volunteer contributions to the organization and the global community of investigative journalists it serves.