pinknews
Orlando’s newspaper has been recognised with a Pulitzer Prize citation for its coverage of the Pulse gay club massacre.
The Orlando Sentinel was one of the primary sources of on-the-ground coverage in Orlando last year during the horrific gay club shooting, in which 49 people died and many more were injured.
The newspaper ran extensive coverage in the wake of the shooting as details slowly became clear about the horrific scale of the tragedy.
In the day following the shooting, the Sentinel published 40 articles and 31 videos online as well as eight extra pages of coverage in print dedicated to the tragedy.
Across the following weeks, the newspaper shed light on the stories of victims and their families, as well as the heroic first responders and doctors who helped saved lives.
The Sentinel was recognised for its work this week, listed by the Pulitzer Prize committee as a 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Breaking News Reporting.
However, the Prize itself was scooped by Oakland’s East Bay Times, which picked up the Pulitzer for coverage of the ‘Ghost Ship’ fire, “exposing the city’s failure to take actions that might have prevented it”.
The Sentinel staff said: “We are honoured to have been named a finalist in the Pulitzer Prize’s breaking news reporting category for our coverage of last summer’s Pulse nightclub tragedy.”