Journalist Walter Duranty, who publicly supported the Stalinist propaganda in the 1930s, is about to be deprived of the Pulitzer Prize awarded to him.
On the official website of the US Holodomor Genocide Committee, a collection of signatures was announced under a corresponding petition.
In a series of reports published in 1932 in the American edition of The New York Times, Duranty praised the collectivization program and the five-year plan (the so-called five-year plan) in the USSR and denied the existence of the Holodomor in Ukraine.
The signature collection announcement states that in Duranty's case, the prize was awarded to a person who did not complies with journalistic ethics and standards of the award, and “spread false news around the world about a totalitarian regime.”
When the petition reaches 7,500 signatures, the committee will send it to the Pulitzer Prize council for consideration.
An international campaign against Duranty was launched back in 2003 by a professor at Columbia University, Mark von Hagen, who conducted a study of his publications. But then “clear and convincing evidence of deliberate deceit”, which could become the basis for depriving the journalist of the prize, was not found.
Recall that on the last Saturday of November, Ukraine traditionally commemorates the Day of Remembrance of Holodomor Victims. The memorable date was introduced by the decree of the President of Ukraine in 1998. In 2006, the Ukrainian law recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide.
