NEW ORLEANS – Ciudad Juárez journalist Rocío Gallegos was presented the Don Bolles Medal on Saturday by Investigative Reporters and Editors to recognize “extraordinary courage in standing up against intimidation or efforts to suppress the truth about matters of public importance.”
Gallegos, the co-founder of the news site La Verdad Juárez, was recognized for her fearless work reporting on crime, corruption and impunity. The medal is named for an Arizona Republic reporter who was killed in a car bombing in 1976 while investigating real estate fraud.
“As long as there is journalism, there is hope, there is life,” Gallegos told an audience of more than 1,000 people as she accepted the award at IRE’s 50th annual convention in New Orleans.
Gallegos was formerly a reporter and editor at Diario de Juárez, a daily newspaper in the border city. She has won numerous international journalism honors for her work. She co-founded La Verdad in 2018 with Gabriela Minjares to bring more independent journalism to Ciudad Juárez.
She is the ninth recipient of the Don Bolles Medal and the second from Mexico, following Miroslava Breach Velducea, who was assassinated in 2017 in retaliation for her efforts to expose organized crime and corruption.
La Verdad, El Paso Matters and Lighthouse Media from The Netherlands also received IRE’s top award for video investigative reporting for an investigation into the causes of a 2023 fire at a migrant detention center in Juárez that killed 40 people. The runner-up for the award was the New York Times.
IRE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting around the world.
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