NEW YORK — The New York Times was honored Monday with 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 “gripping and unforgettable images” as they chronicled the conflict from its opening hours on Oct. 7 until they escaped from Gaza two months later, said Long island University, which presents the annual prizes, in a statement. The Times also relied on longtime freelance journalists in Gaza and imagery developed by its visual investigations team to document the extent of the Israeli bombardment and its impact on civilians.
They were among Polk Awards winners announced Monday in 13 categories. In all, five of the prestigious journalism prizes were for coverage of the Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine wars. The winners will be honored in April as the university marks the 75th anniversary of the awards.
“Given the significance of this year’s program we sensed a special imperative to honor work in the tradition of George Polk,” said John Darnton, curator of the awards, which were created in 1949 in honor of the CBS reporter who was killed 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 no shortage of magnificent reporting, done at great peril, 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 U.S. Supreme Court justices and New York City’s black market for temporary license plates.
Chis Osher and Julia Cardi of the The Gazette of Colorado Springs won the State Reporting award for their exposure of a family court 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…
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