Hope Hodge Seck and Manuel Roig-Franzia awarded prize by Military Reporters & Editors
WASHINGTON — During its annual conference for journalists, Military Reporters & Editors presented awards to the winners of the 2025 MRE Journalism Contest. Hope Hodge Seck and Manuel Roig-Franzia of The Washington Post win MRE’s Best Investigative Reporting (Division 1) award.
Award Summary
Two-part series investigates “Retrograde” documentary, The Washington Post published 5/22/2024 and 11/10/2024.
Prize Category: Best Investigative Reporting / Division 1, Text journalism published in traditional print or online media.
Best work demonstrating in-depth, analytical skills, with information gathered over time, originality, use of public records, if they apply, and outcomes of the investigation, published by news organization with more than 20 reporters.
Judges’ Comments:
Manuel Roig-Franzia and Hope Hodge Seck of The Washington Post investigated the quiet removal by National Geographic of the documentary “Retrograde: from all of its platforms after they asked about whether the content may have put some Afghans featured in the film in danger. They reported on the filmmakers’ decision to show close-ups of the faces of a number of Afghans who had worked with U.S. troops in Afghanistan. As a result, according to their reporting, one of those featured prominently was captured and killed by the Taliban. Their extensive investigation detailed the warnings the filmmakers had been given about the dangerous positions in which they were putting the Afghans by not blurring their faces, which many other documentarians had done in similar situations. As a result of their reporting the Radio Television Digital News Association rescinded the Edward R. Murrow award it had given to the documentary.
Read the Winning Series
- Article 1: A Taliban revenge killing prompts questions, removal of an acclaimed documentary, The Washington Post (5/22/2024)
- Article 2: Murrow Award rescinded for acclaimed ‘Retrograde’ documentary, The Washington Post (11/10/2024)
Journalist Biography
Hope Hodge Seck
Hope Hodge Seck is an award-winning freelance reporter and editor who has covered the U.S. military and security issues since 2009. She was managing editor of Military.com from 2018 to 2021. She has served as vice president of Military Reporters and Editors, editorial
director with the Irregular Warfare Initiative, and contributing editor with the Useful Fiction Project. Her work has appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, Popular Mechanics, POLITICO Magazine, Military Times and more.
Manuel Roig-Franzia
Thomas Novelly is a reporter for Military.com, where he specializes in coverage of issues that directly impact 700,000 airmen and Guardians and their families. His work ranges from investigations into cancer and health concerns among service members who protect America’s nuclear missiles to safety issues with the military’s Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, as well as features into marginalized communities and profiles of Department of the Air Force leadership.
For nearly a decade, he has covered military communities and federal politics across the country from the Mile High City in Colorado to the Lowcountry of South Carolina and beyond. He previously was the military and politics reporter for the Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston.
He won best breaking news story from the Society of Professional Journalists Louisville Pro Chapter in 2018 for reporting on the FBI’s investigation of the University of Louisville basketball team. In 2021, he was part of a team of reporters named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for a series titled “Rising Water,” which examined widespread climate issues and flooding across Charleston. In 2024, he was a Pulitzer Center grantee who investigated health concerns among America’s missileers.