Coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine and reporting on restricted access to abortion in the U.S. featured in the 2023 Pulitzer Prizes.
Announced Monday, the annual awards recognize the best in journalism.
Coverage by The Associated Press of Russia’s weekslong siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol last spring was recognized with the top award for public service journalism.
AP journalists Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko and Lori Hinnant were recognized for their “courageous reporting from the besieged city of Mariupol that bore witness to the slaughter of civilians in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Marjorie Miller, administrator of the prizes, in announcing the award.
The AP also took the Pulitzer for breaking news photography “for [its] urgent images from Mariupol during the first weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Miller said.
Ukrainian officials estimate that more than 20,000 civilians were killed during the siege. Chernov and Maloletka — the last international journalists left in the city — later recounted their escape in an article for the AP as Russians moved closer, seeking out journalists.
Several other finalists and winners were cited for their coverage of the war in Ukraine, including The New York Times, which won the international reporting category for reporting, including its monthslong investigation into the killing of civilians in the city of Bucha.
Administered by Columbia University in New York, the Pulitzer Prizes are considered the most prestigious awards in American journalism. They recognize work in 15 journalism categories and seven arts categories.
The winner of the public service prize is honored with a gold medal. The awards in the other categories carry a prize of $15,000 each.
“In awarding the Pulitzer Prizes, we celebrate the value of journalism to help us make sense of the world,” Pulitzer Prize Board co-chair Neil Brown said at the ceremony streamed online. The finalists and winners “remind us that journalism is not an optional component of our democracy. It is absolutely essential.”
Coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and access to abortion in the U.S. also featured prominently.
The Washington Post’s Caroline Kitchener won the national reporting prize for her reporting on American life after Roe v. Wade.
Local media outlets were recognized for coverage that exposed shortcomings of government officials from local to federal levels, police wrongdoing and issues around racism.
The Wall Street Journal won the prize for investigative reporting for accountability reporting on financial conflicts of interest among officials at 50 federal agencies, and Caitlin Dickerson, a staff writer at The Atlantic, won the explanatory reporting prize for her coverage of the Trump administration policy that forcefully separated migrant children from their parents.
Mona Chalabi of The New York Times won the illustrated reporting and commentary prize for her work documenting the wealth and power of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post.
Before the winners were announced, Brown highlighted the plight of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is detained in Russia on espionage charges that he and his paper deny.
“Journalists pay a substantial price for holding the powerful to account. Too often they are harassed and threatened and even violently attacked and held hostage,” Brown said. “The Pulitzer Prize Board joins the many organizations around the world demanding Evan’s immediate release. He, like so many others, is doing his job.”
