Freelance photojournalist wins Pulitzer for war on drugs coverage

MANILA, Philippines — An Australian freelance photojournalist won his second Pulitzer Prize for documenting the violent anti-narcotics campaign in the Philippines.

Daniel Berehulak, now based in Mexico City, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for a distinguished example of breaking news photography and will take home $15,000.

Berehulak's photos were published in The New York Times showing the "callous disregard for human life in the Philippines brought about by a government assault on drug dealers and users."

On Berehulak's win, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella noted that the Western press has been highly critical of Duterte's war on drugs.

"The Pulitzer Prize board has its own criteria and selection process and we respect their decision on this matter," Abella said in a statement.

In this image released Monday Feb. 13, 2017, by World Press Photo titled "They Are Slaughtering Us Like Animals" by photographer Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times, which won first prize in the General News, Stories, category of the World Press Photo contest shows inmates watching as drug suspects are processed inside a police station in Manila, Philippines. Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP

The other finalists in the Breaking News Photography in 2017 were the photography staff of the Associated Press and freelance photographer Jonathan Bachman.

The jury was composed of Sherman Williams, assistant managing editor of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Andrea Bruce, photographer at NOOR Images; David Hume Kennerly, photographer at Eagles Roar Inc. and past Pulitzer Prize winner; Michele McDonald, photo editor at Portland Press Herald; and Deb Pastner, director of photography and multimedia at Star Tribune.

The Nominating Juries and The Pulitzer Prize Board determine what makes a work "distinguished" as there are no set criteria for the judging of the awards.

Berehulak first won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for his coverage of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa for The New York Times.

In 2011, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of the 2010 floods in Pakistan.

Berehulak has been a regular contributor to the New York Times since 2013. His works have appeared in exhibitions, newspapers and magazines worldwide, according to the website of The Pulitzer Prizes.