Unfiltered with Kiran wins two national Edward R. Murrow awards

BATON ROUGE — Unfiltered with Kiran will be honored with two prestigious national Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, or RTDNA.

Since 1971, RTDNA has been honoring outstanding achievements in broadcast and digital journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards. It is among the most prestigious awards in news recognizing local and national news stories.

The awards are for the News Series category and Breaking News category.

In the News Series, UWK reported extensively into Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s storm water fee. The reports revealed that Mayor Broome’s administration and city-parish officials kept citing a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA, from the federal government that kept them from disclosing details about the proposed fee that would charge EBR residents hundreds or thousands of dollars. However, the federal government said they were never aware of any NDA. After UWK‘s reporting, the fee was taken off the council agenda that would have required council members to vote on it. Plus, multiple people either left their jobs at city-parish after the fallout.

WATCH NOW: Parish Attorney either “mis-interpreted the law or misled council”

Read More on Storm Water fee reporting

• Federal agencies claim no knowledge of Mayor Broome’s storm water fee NDA
• Mayor requests to remove storm water fee off agenda
• EBR Parish Attorney’s job may be on the line over storm water fee
• Parish Attorney either “mis-interpreted the law or misled council”
• EBR council begins process to remove parish attorney
• Parish attorney signed contract in May, council didn’t find out till Sept.
• Second EBR official leaving after storm water fee debacle
• Third EBR official to leave amid storm water fee controversy

The second award was for UWK’s coverage of the murder of a woman streamed live to social media.

Baton Rouge Police said Earl Lee Johnson Jr., 35, allegedly stabbed Janice David, 34, during a livestream on April 18, 2022 during the day. After the stabbing, he then attempted to set the car on fire before he fled.

This is UWK‘s third national Edward R. Murrow. Last year, UWK was honored for “Keep on Keeping on” that highlighted a young man with down syndrome’s triathlon completion.

The banquet is held in New York at Gotham Hall in October where recipients receive their awards.

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