Washington Post wins two Polk Awards

NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- The Washington Post's Dana Priest, who reported on secret CIA prisons, and the hurricane-ravaged News Orleans Times-Picayune will receive 2006 Polk Awards.

Priest and the staff of the Times-Picayune were among winners in 14 categories announced Monday who will receive George Polk Awards, Long Island University officials said.

Priest's uncovering of the CIA-run prisons won the honor for National Reporting. Post reporters Joe Stephens and David Ottaway won the Polk Foreign Reporting category for their work in Afghanistan.

The Times-Picayune won for Metropolitan Reporting for the staff's work in publishing through the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

The New York Times won two Polk Awards with Frank Rich taking the prize for Commentary and Barry Meier for Business Reporting.

Other Polk Awards will be given to: reporter Cam Simpson and photographer Jose Moré of the Chicago Tribune for International Reporting; ABC News correspondents Brian Ross and reporter Richard Esposito for Television Reporting; Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger for Justice Reporting; Bloomberg News' David Evans, Michael Smith and Liz Willen for Health Reporting; Marcus Stern and Jerry Kammer of Copley News Service and Dean Calbreath of the San Diego Union-Tribune for Political Reporting; Adam Clay Thompson of The San Francisco Bay Guardian for Local Reporting; Victor Navasky, author of "A Matter of Option" the Polk Book Award; independent radio producer JoAnn Mar for Radio Reporting.

Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman will be given the George Polk Career Award.

The Polk Awards, named for a journalist killed while covering the civil war in Greece in 1948, have been given since 1949. The formal presentation of the awards will be April 19 in New York.