FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Marjorie Miller, Administrator, The Pulitzer Prizes
[email protected] or 212-854-3841
New York, NY (March 4, 2024) – Aiming to support the work and safety of journalists covering the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the Pulitzer Prize Board is making special financial awards to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Press Institute.
A grant of $50,000 will be made to CPJ to support journalists covering the war in Gaza and a grant of $50,000 will be made to IPI to support journalists covering the war between Russia and Ukraine.
More than than 99 journalists and media workers were killed in conflict zones in 2023, while doing the vital work of keeping their communities and the world informed. According to CPJ, more than three-quarters of those were Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, more than have ever been reported killed in a single conflict in the course of a year.
At least 27 journalists and media workers have been killed over the last decade covering hostilities and later a full-scale war in Ukraine.
Hundreds of journalists carry on this work in their countries in a courageous effort to serve the cause of knowledge, understanding and honest expression. In October the Pulitzer Prize Board voted to set aside $100,000 as an initial fund to be distributed in 2024 to organizations that support the safety of journalists and media colleagues so that they can continue this work.
“The Pulitzer Prizes stand for setting the highest standards in journalism and hundreds of courageous individuals, working under the most adverse conditions for a variety of media, continue to bear witness to events that inform us all,” Administrator Marjorie Miller said on behalf of the Board.
“IPI and CPJ are well suited to see that these funds are put to the most effective use in helping journalists continue their work and contribute, ultimately, to finding resolution,” Miller added.
In previous years, the Pulitzer Board has made grants to working journalists displaced from Afghanistan and Ukraine.
The Pulitzer Prizes, which are administered at Columbia University, were established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to found the School of Journalism in 1912 and establish the Pulitzer Prizes, which were first awarded in 1917.
The 18-member board is composed mainly of leading journalists or news executives from media outlets across the U.S., as well as five academics or persons in the arts. The dean of Columbia's journalism school and the administrator of the prizes are non-voting members. The chair rotates to the most senior member or members. The board is self-perpetuating in the election of members. Voting members may serve three terms of three years for a total of nine years.