On the week which marks a year since their imprisonment in Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been honoured at the British Journalism Awards, at a ceremony in London.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo jointly won the Foreign Affairs Journalism category and Investigation of the Year – Global for ‘Massacre in Myanmar,’ an investigation of a massacre of ten Rohingya men and boys in a village in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were working on the story at the time of their arrest.
British journalism Awards judges said: “This was a top class investigation which was meticulously researched. We’ve seen a lot of stories about the plight of Rohingya refugees but this story exposed what they were running away from. Their arrest reminds of the price journalists can pay for going into difficult areas and uncovering uncomfortable truths.”
Reuters journalist Hannah McKay was highly commended in the Photojournalism category, for her image of UK Prime Minster Theresa May being handed a P45 as she addressed the Conservative Party conference.
Clare Baldwin, Andrew Marshall and Manny Mogato were also shortlisted in the Investigation of the Year category, for their story, ‘Police tell one story of what happened in Barangay 19. Security cameras tell another.’
This year, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have also been awarded a Foreign Press Association Media Award, PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write award, the Osborn Elliot Prize, a One World Media Award, the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism, the Don Bolles Medal from IRE, and the Aubuchon Press Freedom Award from the National Press Club.
Media Contact:
Joel.ivory-harte@thomsonreuters.com
[Reuters PR Blog Post]