Al-Jazeera's good year just got a whole lot better.

The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism rewarded Al-Jazeera English with a 2011 duPont Award for Fault Lines, Haiti -- Six Months On, a documentary portraying the ongoing vulnerability of civilians in Haiti and the inaction of international agencies.

The duPont awards reward excellence in broadcast and digital reporting and are awarded by the same school that hands out the Pulitzer Prizes. Several of the winners -- like HBO, CBS News and NBC News -- were expected, but Al-Jazeera's award caps off a triumphant year for the network in the United States.

It has drawn a great deal of attention for its comprehensive reporting of international stories, and while one would first think of its strong coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings, this award recognizes its reporting on an area miles from its home in Doha, Qatar.

AJE, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in November, has also greatly expanded its footprint in the United States, penetrating markets like New York and Chicago.

The New York Times received an award for online multimedia stories, one on soldiers in Afghanistan and the other on the human cost of the earthquake in Haiti.

Al Jazeera The New York Times Earthquake Afghanistan