Polk Awards Honor Pandemic Reporters
The Washington Post led all news organizations, with four prizes. The infectious-disease reporter Helen Branswell, of Stat, took the public service award for a yearlong chronicle of the coronavirus and its effects.
The Washington Post won four awards, one of which was for the new oral history category.Credit.Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times
Published Feb. 24, 2021Updated March 5, 2021
Journalism on the coronavirus pandemic dominated the George Polk Awards, with nearly half the prizes in recognition of work by print, digital and television reporters who sounded warnings early in the year and later tracked the devastating effects on large swaths of society and those who suffered personally as the death count rose.
NEW YORK (Feb. 24, 2021) – Long Island University (LIU) has announced the winners of the 73rd annual George Polk Awards in Journalism, honoring journalists in 18 categories for their reporting in 2020.
Almost half of the awardees won for reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic, which dominated the judging process, accounting for one quarter of all submissions. This year saw a record total of 592 entries, work that appeared in print, online or on television or radio and was nominated by news organizations and individuals or recommended by a national panel of advisors.
“As always, we strive to identify individual reporters who do significant work, not just the news organizations themselves,” said John Darnton, curator of the awards. “We have never seen a story on the scale of the pandemic. In large part it fell to the press to inform the public about it and the press performed admirably. Our eight Polk winning entries represent the best of the best.”