75th George Polk Awards honor coverage of Middle East and Ukraine wars, Supreme Court and Elon Musk
NEW YORK — The New York Times was honored Monday with the George Polk Awards for Foreign Reporting and Photojournalism for its coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Photographers Samar Abu Elouf and Yousef Masoud captured “poignant and unforgettable images” as they chronicled the conflict from its opening hours on Oct. 7 until they escaped from Gaza two months later, Long Island University, which hands out the annual awards, said in a statement. . The Times also relied on longtime freelance journalists in Gaza and footage developed by the visual research team to document the extent of the Israeli bombardment and its impact on civilians.
They were among the winners of the Polk Awards announced Monday in 13 categories. In total, five of the prestigious journalism awards were for reporting on the wars between Israel and Gaza and Russia and Ukraine. The winners will be honored in April as the university celebrates the 75th anniversary of the awards.
“Given the importance of this year’s program, we felt a special need to honor work in the tradition of George Polk,” said John Darnton, curator of the awards, which were established in 1949 to honor CBS reporter who was murdered while covering the Greek Civil War. “As horrific as the outbreak of war in the Middle East and the ongoing fighting in Ukraine were, they provided us with beautiful reporting, done at great risk, from which to choose.”
Awards also went to journalists who delved into the business practices of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the ethics of the U.S. Supreme Court justices and New York City’s black market for temporary license plates.
Chis Osher and Julia Cardi of The Gazette of Colorado Springs won the State Reporting award for their expose of a family justice system that relied on unqualified parental evaluators and returned young children to abusive fathers, leading to four deaths in a two-month period. The reporting led to changes in state law and an ongoing criminal investigation.
Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Alex Mierjeski, Brett Murphy and the staff of ProPublica won the National Reporting award for exposing questionable gifts to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from wealthy donors and the lack of a meaningful approach to police ethics by the court.
The 2023 Sydney Schanberg Award went to Rolling Stone’s Jason Motlagh, who joined rival gang lords in Haiti. That award was established by journalist Jane Freiman Schanberg to honor long-standing investigative or business journalism and carries a $25,000 reward.
Other winners included Reuters staff for reports on Musk-owned companies, including SpaceX, Neuralink and Tesla; The New Yorker’s Luke Mogelson for reporting from Ukraine; and Anna Werner of CBS News and the KFF Health News team of Brett Kelman, Fred Schulte, Holly K. Hacker and Daniel Chang, for two entries focused on the food chain & Regulation of medical devices by the Drug Administration.
As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, Long Island University is inviting all past recipients to a luncheon on April 12 in Manhattan, where 16 journalists will be honored as “George Polk Laureates.”
The evening symposium “Journalism in an Age of Disinformation, Digital Media and AI” will feature Associated Press Editor-in-Chief Julie Pace, Washington Post Editor-in-Chief Bob Woodward, CNN Editor-in-Chief Christiane Amanpour, and former New York Times Editor-in-Chief Dean Baquet performance. panelists.