President Ma Ying-jeou met with a delegation of Pulitzer Prize winners at the Presidential Office on the morning of November 16. The president, on behalf of the government, extended a warm welcome to the visitors and explained to the guests the current state of press freedom here and his vision for the future.
The president noted that the Pulitzer Prize, which was established in 1917, has a history dating back 92 years. Each year, individuals demonstrating excellence in the field of journalism are selected to receive the prize. Winning the Pulitzer Prize is not only the objective for all those working in the news media, but also represents the pinnacle of achievement in journalism, he said. The president particularly noted the accomplishments of the prize winners in the delegation. He remarked that Mr. Damon Winter was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his moving pictures that captured various facets of Barack Obama's historic presidential campaign. Ms. Julie Cart won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for her in-depth reports on the role of and problems facing the government in its work associated with combating wildfires in California. Meanwhile, Mr. Hank Klibanoff of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper won the Pulitzer Prize for History for his work that featured an in-depth and multi-faceted analysis of the race issue in America.
President Ma furthermore said that National Chengchi University's Department of Journalism specially invited these three Pulitzer Prize winners to take part in this year's Pulitzer Prize Winners Workshop, which is focusing on the theme of "Journalism 3.0: Rethinking the Concept of Professionalism." The president said he is confident that the seminar will be beneficial by giving the guests a chance to interact with the faculty and students at local universities, as well with Taiwan's media and renowned journalists. The president said that Taiwan provides a free environment for the press and the media here is quite developed. The public approves of the role played by the media and has great expectations with regards to the media's ability to engage in disciplined reporting. The president, however, said he feels that the local media is somewhat weak in the reporting of international news, adding that he hopes that greater understanding and interaction will result from this opportunity for the local journalism and academic communities to meet with these outstanding international journalists.
The delegation of Pulitzer Prize winners includes Damon Winter, a photographer for The New York Times, Julie Cart, a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, and Hank Klibanoff, former managing editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.