2014 Pulitzer Prize winners

The Washington Post and the Guardian have won Pulitzer Prizes in public service for revealing the massive U.S. government surveillance effort.

The awards, American journalism's highest honor, were announced Monday.

The newspapers' disclosures about the National Security Agency's spy programs show the government has collected information about millions of Americans' phone calls and emails based on its classified interpretations of laws passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The stories are based on thousands of documents handed over by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The New York Times won awards for breaking news photography and feature photography.

Tyler Hicks was recognized in the breaking news category "for his compelling pictures that showed skill and bravery in documenting the unfolding terrorist attack at Westgate mall in Kenya," the committee said.

Josh Haner won the prize for feature photography for a photo essay on a Boston Marathon bomb blast victim who lost most of both legs.

The Pulitzer for investigative reporting went to Chris Hamby of The Center for Public Integrity "for his reports on how some lawyers and doctors rigged a system to deny benefits to coal miners stricken with black lung disease, resulting in remedial legislative efforts."

(AP)

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