On the evening of April 30, 2026, whistleblower Erez Reuveni was honored with the 2025 Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize. Included in the ceremony was the unveiling his AWTT portrait by artist Robert Shetterly. Journalists Sharyn Alfonsi and Bill Owens also received awards – the 2025 Ridenhour Courage Prize – for their roles in creating and standing behind the 60 Minutes segment titled “Inside CECOT,” featuring interviews with Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious El Salvador prison.
View video of the event (AWTT unveiling portion @ 43:00-48:00)
Roberta Baskin, a CBS whistleblower, served as master of ceremonies of the event, which took place at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and was attended by 250 people.
The Ridenhour prizes are named for Ronald Ridenhour who, as a young Vietnam veteran, exposed the My Lai massacre. The sponsor of the awards is the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a non-profit organization that promotes corporate and government accountability by protecting whistleblowers, advancing occupational free speech, and empowering citizen activists. GAP also educates the public about the importance of whistleblowing and leads campaigns to enact whistleblower protection laws both domestically and internationally. Writer and philanthropist, Randy Fertel, addressed the audience with a speech “exploring the echoes between the My Lai Massacre and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s promotion of the ‘warrior spirit.'”
After an exemplary fifteen-year career in the U.S. Department of Justice, Reuveni was fired for disclosing to a federal court that the government’s deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an error. Later, in a Protected Whistleblower Disclosure statement, GAP lawyers stated on Reuveni’s behalf: “Discouraging clients from engaging in illegal conduct is an important part of the role of a lawyer. Mr. Reuveni tried to do so and was thwarted, threatened, fired, and publicly disparaged for both doing his job and telling the truth to the court. Because his clients engaged in unlawful activity, abused their authority, created substantial and specific threat to health and safety, and because the pattern of this conduct continues to this day, Mr. Reuveni is exercising his rights under [federal statute] to report wrongdoing.”
Read more about this year’s prize winners.