The New York Times won three Pulitzer Prizes, including an award for Daniel Beruhalak’s coverage of the bloody drug war in the Philippines, where he documented 57 homicide victims in 35 days.
The Australian freelance lensman bagged the prize for Breaking News Photography. This is his second Pulitzer, after winning Feature Photography in 2015 for his coverage of the West Africa Ebola epidemic.
Congratulations to @berehulak and the @nytimes! pic.twitter.com/14rqUw2jKL
— The Pulitzer Prizes (@PulitzerPrize) April 10, 2017
His award-winning article published on Dec 7, 2016 was titled “They are Slaughtering Us Like Animals.”
“What I experienced in the Philippines felt like a new level of ruthlessness: police officers’ summarily shooting anyone suspected of dealing or even using drugs, vigilantes’ taking seriously Mr. Duterte’s call to ‘slaughter them all,’”wrote Beruhalak on the story, which has been translated into Filipino, Spanish and Chinese.
According to the Pulitzer Prize website, Beruhalak showed “the callous disregard for human life in the Philippines brought about by a government assault on drug dealers and users.”
Late last year, President Rodrigo Duterte complained about Beruhalak’s piece. He said the NYT has been “totally one-sided” in their coverage.
“The Pulitzer is a huge honor,” said Berehulak. “But it just reminds us why we do these things. It’s the story that’s more important than any accolades.”
NYT won on in the categories of international reporting, feature writing, and breaking news photography.
