The Northern California chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists honored U.S. Right to Know today with the James Madison Freedom of Information Award in the nonprofit organization category for our work investigating and reporting on the origins of COVID-19. The awards recognize people and organizations who have made “significant contributions to advancing freedom of information and expression in the spirit of James Madison, the creative force behind the First Amendment.”

“By filing more than 160 requests under the Freedom of Information Act, initiating 30 lawsuits to uncover documents held by federal officials, and combing through tens of thousands of documents, U.S. Right to Know unearthed crucial information about the potential origins of COVID-19 and the high-risk research being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” SPJ NorCal wrote. 

Our extensive research “found drafts of aborted grant proposals involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology and collaboration with U.S. scientists. Emily Kopp’s reporting highlighted the risks of “gain-of-function” research, which involves genetically modifying organisms to test how viruses evolve and spread.”

The journalists’ group notes that, “U.S. Right to Know faced heavy criticism from U.S.-based media outlets and politicians, who claimed their work was furthering misinformation. But the nonprofit pressed on, and in January the Central Intelligence Agency stated that it believes COVID-19 likely originated from work done in a laboratory. 

“U.S. Right to Know’s work, and their dedication to pursuing government documents in the face of widespread pushback, has helped the public better understand a pandemic that claimed millions of lives.”

We want to thank all of the sources, scientists and researchers, and lawyers whose generosity made this work possible. We couldn’t have done this reporting without you. Special thanks to the whole biohazards team: Emily Kopp, Karolina Corin, Sainath Suryanaryanan and Hana Mensendiek.

You can read our reporting here on the origins of COVID-19 and high-high-risk virological research.