Pulitzer Prizes to honor top journalism on Monday

[April 14, 2014]  By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) — The Pulitzer Prizes, the United States' most prestigious journalism awards that honor news reporting and photography as well as literature, are to be awarded for the 98th time on Monday.

The prizes, awarded by Columbia University, are given in 14 categories of journalism as well as drama, music, poetry and books.

Named after journalist and publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who left money to establish the Columbia Journalism School, the awards are decided by a 19-member panel of editors, news executives and academics.

One question on the mind of Pulitzer-watchers this year is whether the board will honor reporting based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed details of global electronic surveillance by the U.S. spy agency.

Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the first journalists to report on Snowden's leaks in stories published in Britain's the Guardian newspaper, were given a George Polk journalism award on Friday, as was the Washington Post's Barton Gellman, who also received documents from Snowden.

The Pulitzer prizes can bring badly needed attention and recognition to newspapers and websites competing for readers in a fragmented media industry, where many are suffering from economic pressure and budget constraints.

Last year, the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, won for its investigation of off-duty police officers who were endangering the lives of citizens.

Reporters at InsideClimate News, an online site in Brooklyn, New York, won the prize for national reporting for its coverage of flawed regulation of the country's oil pipelines.

(Editing by Scott Malone and G. Crosse)

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