The winners of the 71st George Polk Awards delivered their acceptance speeches virtually via cell phone video in April of 2020. The April 3rd Awards Luncheon was canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

If Latin America and the Caribbean is home to just 8% of the world’s population, why do they have 38% of the world’s murders? Why Latin America the most homicidal Region on earth? NYTimes reporter Azam Ahmed tells the chilling stories of the victims in his dispatches from Latin America that won him the George Polk Award in Foreign Reporting. “It feels strange to win an award writing about the suffering of others,” said Ahmed. “I hope more than anything that this award can bring more attention their plight”

Bill Siemering of NPR recieved the Polk Career Award (2019).

Apr 4, 2019 - The George Polk Awards Panel: Reporters Who Seek to Right Wrongs. MADELEINE BARAN, REPORTER, APM REPORTS. JULIE K BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE MIAMI HERLAD. GINGER THOMPSON, SENIOR REPORTER, PROPUBLICA. MODERATOR: CHARLAYNE HUNTE… — Apr 4, 2019 - The *George Polk* Awards Panel: *Reporters Who Seek to Right Wrongs*. MADELEINE BARAN, *REPORTER*, APM REPORTS. JULIE K BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE *REPORTER*, THE MIAMI HERLAD. GINGER THOMPSON, SENIOR *REPORTER*, PROPUBLICA. MODERATOR: CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, *JOURNALIST*/AUTHOR.

Karen Attiah of the Washington Post won a Special Polk Award for commentaries on the death of her colleague, Jamal Khashoggi.

In 2018, he Staff of the New York Times and the Washington Post received a Special Polk Award for “uncovering connections between Trump campaign officials and well-connected Russians."

Mia and Ronan Farrell at the 2018 Polk Awards. Ronan Farrell won a Polk Award for National Reporting for "exposing the decades-long sexual predation of the movie producer Harvey Weinstein."

Elle Reeve (right) won a Polk Award for National Television for "on-the-scene up-close coverage of the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia" (2018).

Nima Elbagir, a Sudanese journalist working for CNN, won a Polk Award for Foreign Television Reporting for "uncovering a hidden modern-day slave auction of African refugees in Libya" (2018).

New York Times and Esquire Magazine journalist Gay Talese, a guest at the 2018 Polk Awards Luncheon, with Melvin McCray, a memeber of the Polk Selection Committee.

Anna Deavere Smith received the Polk Career Award in 2017.

Simeon Booker, the pioneering journalist with Ebony and Jet Magazines, won the Polk Career Award in 2016.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, award-winning journalist and Polk Awards Panel Moderator, gave the closing remarks at the 2016 panel.