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The 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Public Service
For a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper, magazine or news site through the use of its journalistic resources, including the use of stories, editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics, videos, databases, multimedia or interactive presentations or other visual material, a gold medal.

Associated Press, for the work of Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko and Lori Hinnant

Courageous reporting from the besieged city of Mariupol that bore witness to the slaughter of civilians in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Vasilisa Stepanenko (second from left), Evgeniy Maloletka, Mstyslav Chernov and Lori Hinnant accept the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service from Columbia University President Emeritus Lee Bollinger. (Diane Bondareff/The Pulitzer Prizes) 

Winning Work

Biography

Mstyslav Chernov is a Ukrainian war correspondent, filmmaker, photographer, and novelist known for his coverage of the Ukrainian revolution, the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the war in Iraq, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh, and Afghanistan under Taliban rule after U.S. withdrawal, as well as for his art installations and exhibitions. Chernov is an Associated Press journalist and the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP).

Evgeniy Maloletka is a Ukrainian war photographer, journalist and filmmaker, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014. He has also covered the Euromaidan Revolution, the protests in Belarus, the Nagorno-Karabakh war and the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine. Maloletka covered the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine. In particular, his photo of the doctor Evhen Venzhynovych was widely disseminated as a public service announcement.

Vasilisa Stepanenko is a Ukrainian freelance journalist and video producer. Born in Kharkiv, she began working with the AP in January 2022, one month before Russia invaded the country, and traveled to Mariupol along with her AP colleagues to cover the brutal siege of the city. Her work has focused on human rights and social justice issues. Stepanenko received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, graduating in 2021.

Based in Paris, Lori Hinnant has reported for AP since 1999 throughout Europe, North Africa and Iraq, Mideast, combining data journalism with deeply personal reporting on humanitarian crises. She uncovered a global drive to raise ransoms for hundreds of Christians detained by the Islamic State group and documented the unreported deaths of thousands of migrants around the world. Hinnant was part of a team that came in as finalists for the Pulitzer for International Reporting in 2018, for stories that showed the fall of the Islamic State in Mosul.

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Public Service in 2023:

Austin American-Statesman, in collaboration with the USA Today Network

For unflinching coverage of local law enforcement’s flawed response to the massacre of 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, including a haunting video of police delays.

The Washington Post

For an exhaustive investigation of the fentanyl crisis ravaging families across the country that tracked the import and distribution of the drug and the government's failure to address the epidemic of addiction.

The Jury

Kristen Go(Chair)

Executive Editor and Vice President of News and Initiatives, USA Today

Susan Glasser

Staff Writer, The New Yorker

Roy S. Johnson

Columnist, AL.com, Birmingham

Kelly McBride

Senior Vice President and Chair of Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, Poynter Institute; Public Editor, National Public Radio

Shazna Nessa

Chief Visuals Editor, The Wall Street Journal

Terry Orme

Former Editor and Publisher, The Salt Lake Tribune

Jamie Stockwell

Executive Editor, Axios Media

Winners in Public Service

2022

The Washington Post

For its compellingly told and vividly presented account of the assault on Washington on January 6, 2021, providing the public with a thorough and unflinching understanding of one of the nation's darkest days.
2021

The New York Times

For courageous, prescient and sweeping coverage of the coronavirus pandemic that exposed racial and economic inequities, government failures in the U.S. and beyond, and filled a data vacuum that helped local governments, healthcare providers, businesses and individuals to be better prepared and protected.
2019

South Florida Sun Sentinel

For exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
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2023 Prize Winners

Commentary

Kyle Whitmire of AL.com, Birmingham

For measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama's Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments–and through the history that has been omitted.
Investigative Reporting

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For sharp accountability reporting on financial conflicts of interest among officials at 50 federal agencies, revealing those who bought and sold stocks they regulated and other ethical violations by individuals charged with safeguarding the public’s interest.
See All 2023 Winners