23 prizes, an announcement via live broadcast and the whole thing in an almost comical way unspectacular: At the presentation of the highest award in US journalism, a lot is going as expected. But there is at least one surprise.
When the news website AL.com was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting on Monday afternoon New York time, the approximately 75 employees in Birmingham, Alabama, must have been very happy. In a series of articles, a team of reporters revealed how police in the neighboring town of Brookside deliberately ambushed residents in order to increase revenue from fines. As a result, the local police chief had to resign, and four new laws to protect citizens were passed. This would not have happened without this kind of persistent local journalism.