New York Times garners 3 Pulitzer Prizes

New York, May 4 (efe-epa).- The New York Times on Monday was awarded three Pulitzer Prizes, including the one for International Journalism for the report the paper published on the for a series of stories on the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an announcement retransmitted online, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, Dana Canedy, also revealed the recognition of the New York paper for Investigative Reporting for Brian M. Rosenthal’s report on the Big Apple’s taxi industry discussing predatory loans that took advantage of vulnerable drivers.

The paper also won in the Commentary category for Nikole Hannah-Jones’ essay examining America’s origins from the point of view of African slaves.

This year, the most outstanding award, that for Public Service, was handed to the ProPublica news agency in collaboration with The Anchorage Daily News on the high number of sexual assaults in rural Alaska, where there is scanty police presence.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post staff was presented with the award for Explantory Reporting for a series of articles showing the effects of extreme temperatures worldwide.

Canedy said that this prize was presented for the Post’s discussion of the stories showing with scientific clarity the day to day effects of such temperatures.

In a new move, this year Columbia University, which distributes the awards widely considered to be journalism’s most prestigious for US-based journalists, included an additional category to begin recognizing recent in-depth Audio Reporting, with this year’s prize going to the staff of the program “This American Life” for dealing with the direct impact on people of the immigration policy of President Donald Trump.

The prizes were announced by Canedy via a videoconference from her home because of the social distancing measures implemented in New York City to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Among the other awards, Reuters was handed the Breaking News Photography prize for its photos of the anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong.

In the Breaking News Reporting category, the Courier-Journal of Lexington, Kentucky took home the award for coverage of hundreds of pardons bestowed by Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin.

The Baltimore Sun received the award for Local Reporting, ProPublica and The Seattle Times shared the National Reporting award, the Associated Press was honored for Feature Photography, The New Yorker’s Ben Taub and Barry Blitt were awarded for Feature Writing and Editorial Cartoons, respectively and The Los Angeles Times’ Christopher Knight received the Criticism prize.

Colin Whitehead won in the Fiction category for “The Nickel Boys” and in the General Nonfiction category the award went to “The Undying” by Anne Boyer and “The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America” by Greg Grandin.

Civil rights figure Ida B. Wells, an early pioneer of investigative journalism, received a Special Citation award.

“During this season of unprecedented uncertainty, one thing we know for sure is that journalism never stops. And much like our courageous first responders and front-line healthcare workers, journalists are running toward the fire,” said Canedy in her remarks before presenting the awards.

“Despite relentless assaults on objective truth, coordinated efforts to undermine our nation’s free press, and persistent economic headwinds, journalists continue to pursue and deliver essential facts and truths to keep us safe and protect our democracy. They are risking – and far too often losing – their lives at a time when their words, their images, and their revelations are more necessary to our democracy than ever,” she added.

Although best known for recognizing achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, the yearly Pulitzer Prizes are also awarded for literature (drama, history, poetry, fiction and general non-fiction writing) and musical composition. The awards were established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher.

In 20 of the 21 categories, the winners receive a certificate and $15,000 cash, but the winner in the Public Service category is awarded a gold medal.

EFE