George Polk Awards honor reporting on conflicts in Israel, Sudan, Ukraine and Haiti
NEW YORK (AP) — Reporting on four of the world’s major conflict zones — Israel, Sudan, Ukraine and Haiti — was honored Monday with George Polk awards, one of journalism’s highest honors. And one of the winners is a grand niece of the award’s namesake.
Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti of The New York Times Magazine won the Foreign Reporting prize for exposing how Israel condoned and shaped government policy in favor of ultranationalist settlers who terrorized Palestinians in the West Bank.
Declan Walsh and his colleagues at The New York Times won the War Reporting prize for coverage of the civil war in Sudan. The United Arab Emirates paused some of its operations in the war-ravaged nation after Walsh reported that it and other countries were playing a secret role in the conflict in an effort to obtain resources and power.
Sarah A. Topol of The New York Times Magazine received the Sydney Schanberg Prize for long-form investigative or enterprise journalism for “The Deserter,” a 35,000-word portrait of a combat officer who defected from the Russian military after the invasion of Ukraine.
Marcia Biggs and a team from PBS NewsHour won the Foreign Television Reporting prize for their “Haiti in Crisis” series, which documented how gang violence had upended daily life in the Caribbean nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Biggs is a grand niece of the awards’ namesake, George Polk, a CBS reporter who was killed while covering the Greek civil war. The awards, presented by Long Island University, were created in 1949 in his honor.
This year, 15 winners were selected from nearly 500 submissions. Winners will be celebrated at a luncheon ceremony April 4 in Manhattan.
“Given the range and depth of exceptional reporting before us, winnowing the list to these 15 meant making some very hard calls,” Polk Awards curator John Darnton said. “These winners represent the best of the best. The runners-up were all worthy.”
Other winners included: Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme and Jessica Gallagher of The Baltimore Banner for Local Reporting for revealing the breadth and impact of a lethal overdose crisis; Sara DiNatale of the San Antonio Express-News for State Reporting for exposing solar energy scams that targeted elderly homeowners; and Katherine Eban of Vanity Fair for National Reporting for showing how politics and economic interests hampered the government’s response to bird flu.
The Justice Reporting prize went to Katey Rusch and Casey Smith, whose “Right to Remain Secret” series in the San Francisco Chronicle exposed how police officers arranged to clear their records of misconduct allegations, enabling them to collect hefty pensions.
The Health Care Reporting prize went to a team from STAT for a six-part series on UnitedHealth Group’s influence on all aspects of health care. The Medical Reporting prize went to a team from ProPublica for exposing how strict abortion bans led to preventable deaths of pregnant women. The Technology Reporting prize went to Bloomberg Businessweek for stories revealing how sexual predators and drug dealers use online gaming and social media platforms to exploit children.
Two magazine writers were honored for exposes. Jane Mayer of The New Yorker received the Political Reporting prize for “Pete Hegseth’s Secret History,” chronicling the Defense Secretary’s troubled past. Rachel Aviv of The New Yorker received the Magazine Reporting prize for “Alice Munro’s Passive Voice,” detailing the late novelist’s dismissive reaction to allegations that a romantic partner had sexually abused her daughter.
A team from NBC News and Noticias Telemundo, including the late Susan Carroll, was awarded the National Television Reporting prize for exposing how a Texas medical school was dismembering corpses of people who died alone and leasing the body parts for research and education.
The Podcast prize went to Ben Austen and Bill Healy for Audible’s “The Parole Room,” which tracks a man’s 20th attempt to win his release from prison, more than a half-century after he was convicted of killing two Chicago police officers — a crime he maintains he did not commit.
