Award name: 01 The Hal Boyle Award

AP’s Rukmini Callimachi won both the Hal Boyle and Bob Considine awards for her reporting on a trove of al-Qaida documents uncovered in Mali. She is the first reporter ever to win both awards in the same year.

This vivid and powerful series of reports from inside Syria range from bomb making lessons to kidnapping and government tactics. The reporter focuses on ordinary people — both fighters and housewives — in extraordinary circumstances. She writes beautifully detailed stories from the conflict zone, giving readers a human portrayal of war.

In a year of momentous events and in a category filled with outstanding entries, the stories by Chris Chivers of The New York Times from Libya and Afghanistan stood out as war reporting at its best. His superb and evocative dispatches explained why the Afghanistan war has become so difficult for the U.S., strategically, tactically and politically. Chivers’ war coverage was a remarkable blend of cool, analytical reporting and impassioned first-hand accounts of the suffering experienced by the victims. In January, his story from Afghanistan about the improved survival rates of wounded U.S. soldiers showed, with impressive documentation, an important trend in the waging of war. Later in the year, his story about the civilian victims in Libya belied assurances by
NATO that its seven-month air campaign was without unintended casualties. Tough,
cool and brave: these were the hallmarks of Chivers’ great reporting in 2011.

With great writing and deep reporting, The Washington Post series captured the war in Afghanistan, from the seeming futility of the U.S. offensive and the challenges American soldiers faced on the ground in Marja to the Taliban forces moving into Zabul and the bizarre allegiances the U.S. has made with regional tribal leaders. In this rich body of work, Chandrasekaran and Partlow captured the tragedy of Afghanistan’s war.

Farnaz Fassihi’s courageous reporting gives us an inside view of the unfolding drama in Iran.

The Los Angeles Times dispatched reporters to cities in Mexico most affected by drug war violence such as Tijuana, Monterrey, Juarez and Culiacan. They combined this high-risk news gathering with solid reporting from across the United States, showing the extent of Mexican gang penetration into American cities.

“The Private Armies of Iraq” is a groundbreaking exposé of private security firms in Iraq, written months before the Blackwater scandal found guards from one of the largest security firms opening fire on Iraqi civilians. In a deeply reported, riveting narrative, Fainaru shines a penetrating light on a murky world.

At a time when many news organizations are under pressure to cut back on their international presence, the judges were impressed by the depth of commitment made by the Los Angeles Times to cover two of the world’s most difficult and dangerous stories.

Best newspaper or wire service reporting from abroad AWARD YEAR: 2005 AWARD NAME: The Hal Boyle Award 2005 RECIPIENT: Hannah Allam, Tom Lasseter and the late Yasser Salihee AFFILIATION: Knight Ridder HONORED WORK: “Iraq: America’s Failing War” The Knight Ridder team was far ahead of other news organizations, reporting in February 2005 that deadly infighting…

Best newspaper or wire service reporting from abroad AWARD YEAR: 2004 AWARD NAME: The Hal Boyle Award 2004 RECIPIENT: Dexter Filkins AFFILIATION: The New York Times HONORED WORK: “Street by Street in Fallujah” Dexter Filkins spent eight days with Bravo Company in Fallujah, writing daily from a Marine unit that took 36 casualties, including six…