The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, an award-winning non-profit with a reputation for excellence in journalism and education, will expand the scope and impact of its coverage of nuclear security issues through a new grant provided by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).
The Center will produce a series of stories on important and often under-covered nuclear issues for its successful “Going Nuclear” gateway. The stories will be brought to broad public and policymaker audiences through established and widely read and viewed mainstream news media. In addition, the grant will cover outreach through Pulitzer’s robust education program for secondary school and university students.
“The Pulitzer grant supports two key NTI objectives: public education on nuclear security policy and reaching the next generation on nuclear issues,” said NTI President Joan Rohlfing. “We are delighted to support a news organization with a tremendous track record. Pulitzer’s network of hundreds of top-flight journalists and its relationships with major media outlets from The New York Times and Le Monde to PBS NewsHour and NPR, as well as educational institutions around the world, make it an ideal partner for NTI.”
The $150,000, 18-month grant will contribute directly to Pulitzer’s ongoing work on emerging global nuclear threats, which has included reporting on the dangerous spread of nuclear technology and security and budget issues related to nuclear weapons and materials. Among the nuclear security projects Pulitzer has funded previously: The ground-breaking report, Plutonium Mountain, by David Hoffman of The Washington Post and Eben Harrell of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
“We deeply appreciate NTI’s commitment to independent reporting on an issue that is already an significant part of our work,” said Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer. “We are especially excited that NTI shares our goal of making this reporting a focus of our outreach in secondary schools and universities.”
Supporting independent news coverage on issues related to nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction has been part of NTI’s mission since its founding. From 2001 to 2014, NTI was the sole funder of Global Security Newswire, a free, five-day-a-week online source of news on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and terrorism. One of the early “e-dailies,” GSN was conceived by NTI to address a growing gap in authoritative and unbiased mainstream media reporting on nuclear, chemical and biological issues. It was produced independently by National Journal.
For information on applying for a Pulitzer Center reporting grant see https://pulitzercenter.org/grants.
About the Nuclear Threat Initiative
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization with a mission to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Founded in 2001 by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and philanthropist Ted Turner, NTI is guided by a prestigious, international board of directors. Joan Rohlfing serves as president.