ISLAMABAD: The Pulitzer board awarded a Special Citation to Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown for reporting that, as cited by the committee, exposed Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of young women, the system that protected him, and his network of enablers.
Her series, "Perversion of Justice," published in 2017 and 2018, revealed how prosecutors shielded Epstein from federal sex trafficking charges and gave direct voice to scores of victims – work the board recognized nearly a decade after its publication.
The citation arrived as accountability and conflict-of-interest journalism swept the 2026 awards. The Washington Post took Public Service (the field's highest honor) for what the Pulitzer board described as "piercing the veil of secrecy around the Trump administration's chaotic overhaul of federal agencies and chronicling in rich detail the human impacts of the cuts and the consequences for the country."
The New York Times won Investigative Reporting for stories the committee said "exposed how President Trump has shattered constraints on conflicts of interest and exploited the moneymaking opportunities that come with power, enriching his family and allies."
National Reporting went to a Reuters team consisting of Ned Parker, Linda So, Peter Eisler, and Mike Spector for, as the board cited, "documenting how the president used the US government and the influence of his supporters to expand executive power and exact vengeance on his foes."
Gaza and global investigations
Saher Alghorra, a New York Times contributor, won Breaking News Photography for his "haunting, sensitive series showing the devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from the war with Israel," according to the committee.
The Associated Press team of Dake Kang, Garance Burke, Byron Tau, Aniruddha Ghosal, and contributor Yael Grauer won International Reporting for what the board called "an astonishing global investigation into state-of-the-art tools of mass surveillance, created in Silicon Valley, advanced in China, and spreading worldwide before returning to America for secret new uses by the US Border Patrol."
Other major awards
The Minnesota Star Tribune won Breaking News for its coverage of a shooting at a Catholic school that, as reported by the board, killed two children and wounded 17.
Jeff Horwitz and Engen Tham of Reuters took Beat Reporting for reporting the committee said revealed Meta's "willingness to expose users, including children, to scams and AI manipulation."
The San Francisco Chronicle's "Burned" series won Explanatory Reporting for exposing how insurance algorithms systematically undervalued fire-loss properties, according to the Pulitzer board.
In books, Daniel Kraus won Fiction for "Angel Down," Jill Lepore won History for "We the People: A History of the US Constitution," and Yiyun Li won Memoir for "Things in Nature Merely Grow," described by the committee as a "moving and revelatory account" of losing two sons to suicide.
The music prize went to Gabriela Lena Frank for "Picaflor: A Future Myth," a symphonic work the board said was informed by her personal experiences with California wildfires.
Opinion Writing went to M Gessen of The New York Times for essays on rising authoritarian regimes. The Audio Reporting prize went to the podcast "Pablo Torre Finds Out," produced by Meadowlark Media and licensed by The Athletic, for investigating how the Los Angeles Clippers "seemingly evaded the NBA's salary cap by funneling money to a star player," as cited by the Pulitzer board.
