The Pulitzer Prize Board granted "special mention" to the young woman who filmed the clip of George Floyd's murder, which sparked protests in various parts of the world against police racism and brutality.

Darnella Frazier, 18, was honored while Columbia University in New York announced the prestigious 2021 Journalism Awards in a virtual evening.

The custodians of these awards said that Frazier was recognized for her "courage to portray the killing of George Floyd in a clip that sparked protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the vital role of citizens in journalists' pursuit of truth and justice."

Frazier was also among the witnesses who testified during the trial of former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in April of Floyd's murder on May 25, 2020.

In the video clip, Chauvin appears pressing his knee for more than nine minutes on Floyd's neck, while bystanders repeatedly appeal to him to stop, and Floyd says he is unable to breathe before he loses consciousness.

"I did not know this man (..) but I knew that his life was important," Frazier wrote on her Facebook page on May 25, the first anniversary of the death of George Floyd.

"This case changed me. It changed my outlook on life. It made me realize the dangers of being black in the United States," she added.

The Star Tribune staff in Minneapolis won a breaking news award for its coverage of Floyd's death and its aftermath.

The New York Times won the Public Service Award for its "courageous, insightful, and comprehensive coverage" of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Buzzfeed won its first Pulitzer Prize since its inception in the International Report category for its coverage of camps built by China to intern Muslims there.

Reuters won an award in the interpretive journalism category for a multimedia project entitled "Shielded", in which it shows how a legal jurisprudence dating back half a century protects US police officers from prosecution or conviction for many of the lapses they commit.