LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Times’ Alene Tchekmedyian was named the Los Angeles Press Club’s 2023 Guardian Awardee for Contributions to Press Freedom, in March.
“I’m deeply honored to receive this recognition from the Los Angeles Press Club, an organization that has done so much to lift up local journalists. I am grateful to my editors for their constant guidance, my colleagues who I learn from every day and all of the people willing to share stories of misconduct within the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department at great risk to themselves,” Tchekmediyan said.
Tchekmedyian covered the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department from 2019 to 2022, focusing on accountability stories and writing about failures by officials to comply with transparency laws. She and her colleagues exposed the cover-up of misconduct by deputies who shared photos of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash as well as the practice by sheriff’s deputies of pulling over bicyclists for minor violations and searching them, which disproportionately impacted Latino riders.
“One of the most important jobs of journalists is to cast a light on those who hold power, and Alene’s work is a shining example,” said Press Rights Chair Adam Rose. “She’s provided Los Angeles with vital coverage of opaque institutions, taken readers inside law enforcement scandals, and helped all journalists by fighting for transparency. “
Before joining the Times in 2016, Tchekmedyian reported on crime and policing for the Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader. She grew up in Huntington Beach and graduated from UCLA and Columbia Journalism School.
She is currently an investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times.
