06-05-2025
Irish journalist Declan Walsh wins Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Sudan civil war
Declan Walsh, a journalist originally from Co Mayo, has won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting on the conflict in Sudan.
Walsh, who is based in Nairobi in Kenya, is the chief Africa correspondent for the
New York Times
.
The Pulitzer Prizes, which were started in 1917, are presented annually by Columbia University for excellence in journalism and letters.
The winners were announced in New York on Monday, with Walsh and the staff of the New York Times winning the award for international reporting for their coverage of the ongoing
civil war in Sudan
.
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Their coverage included revealing the role of the United Arab Emirates in the conflict and its human toll.
Walsh, who is originally from Ballina, attended University College Dublin (UCD) and Dublin City University (DC). He has also written for the Times, covering Pakistan and Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Walsh was expelled from Pakistan in 2013 for his reporting.
He has been based in Kenya since 2020 and won a Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award for his reporting from Yemen.
Walsh was also previously shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.
The Pulitzer Prizes honoured the best reporting from 2024 in 15 categories, as well as eight arts categories focused on books, music and theatre. A special citation was given to the late journalist Chuck Stone for career achievements that included covering the Civil Rights Movement and co-founding the National Association of Black Journalists.
With the exception of the Public Service winner, Pulitzer award recipients get a $15,000 cash prize, which was raised from $10,000 in 2017. The public-service prize is a gold medal given to a news organisation.
Marjorie Miller, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, said: 'These are particularly difficult times for the media and publishers in the United States,' while praising journalism coming from 'unbowed' newsrooms.
'Journalists and writers now face additional threats in the form of legal harassment, the banning of books and attacks on their work and legitimacy,' she added.
'These efforts are meant to silence criticism, to edit or rewrite history. They're an attempt to erode the first amendment of our Constitution, which guarantees a free press and free speech.'
