Reports on Russia and Rwanda Win Top US Journalism Awards
http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=CADABF:2F72C9DLA Times, Newsday share award for international reporting Winners of
the most prestigious awards in U.S. print journalism, the Pulitzer
prizes, were announced in New York today. Reporters for the Los
Angeles Times and Newsday share the international reporting award for
their coverage of Russia and Rwanda as those nations cope with the
past and try to move forward. The Pulitzer Committee cited Dele
Olojede of the suburban New York newspaper Newsday for his reporting
on Rwanda a decade after genocide ravaged the nation. Mr. Olojede
shared the international reporting award with Los Angeles Times'
reporter Kim Murphy for her coverage of Russia's struggles with
terrorism, the economy and democracy. Sig Gissler, the awards
administrator, said it was only the sixth time that the board gave the
award for international reporting to two journalists. "This year, I
think you see the two examples, one where the coverage is of Russia,
including the problems in Chechnya, and the other, by Olojede, was
revisiting Rwanda by 10 years after the bloodbath. So they're two
different kinds of international coverage and I think the board felt
they were both very excellent, and so they, this time decided to award
two prizes for international coverage," he said.Mr. Gissler noted the
decline in coverage of the Iraq war among the submissions, and of the
overall value of international news coverage for Americans. "The
importance of the international reporting award is to honor courageous
and effective coverage of our planet. Often undergreat, great personal
risk. And to encourage stories that will give American newspaper
readers full in-depth understanding of what's going on in this world,"
he said.The Los Angeles Times also won the public service award for
exposing deadly medical problems and racial injustice at a major
public hospital.New York Times business reporter Walt Bogdanich won
the national reporting award for a series exposing a corporate cover
up of fatal accidents at railroad crossings. He won a Pulitzer in 1988
while working for the Wall Street Journal.But several local newspapers
beat big competitors for some of the top prizes this year with stories
of sexual scandals. The Newark, New Jersey Star Ledger won the prize
for breaking news for its coverage of the resignation of New Jersey's
governor after his announcement that he was homosexual and had had an
adulterous affair with a male lover. And a reporter for The Willamette
Week, a local Oregon publication, won the coveted investigative
reporting prize for reports of a former governor's sexual misconduct
with a 14-year-old girl. The Associated Press received the breaking
news photography award for what the Pulitzer Committee called its
"stunning series of photographs of bloody yearlong combat inside Iraqi
cities.The Pulitzer committee also gives out prizes in the arts. This
year playwright John Patrick Shanley took home top honors in drama for
his play Doubt, about a nun who suspects a priest of molesting
children. All of the prizes are worth $10,000 except for the public
service award, a gold medal. Columbia University administers the
awards for the Pulitzer Committee.