New York - The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times were each awarded two coveted Pulitzer Prizes for journalism on Monday.
The Los Angeles Times won the public service award for its exposure of corruption in the Californian city of Bell where officials tapped the treasury to pay themselves large salaries. The newspaper's coverage led to arrests and reforms.
Los Angeles Times photographer Barbara Davidson won the prize for feature photography for her pictures of innocent victims caught in the crossfire of Los Angeles gang violence.
The New York Times' Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry won the international reporting category for putting “a human face on the faltering justice system in Russia”.
David Leonhardt of The New York Times won the commentary award for “his graceful penetration of America's complicated economic questions, from the federal budget deficit to health care reform”.
The Pulitzer Prizes honour journalism, books, drama and poetry and are awarded annually by the Pulitzer Prize Board at New York City's Columbia University.
Each winner receives $10 000.
There was no prize for breaking news this year and the board did not explain its decision.
ProPublica, a non-profit news group which last year became the first online news service to win a Pulitzer, this year took home the national reporting award for Jesse Eisinger's and Jake Bernstein's exposure of questionable practices on Wall Street that contributed to the US economic downturn. - Reuters