Two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have received a Foreign Press Association Media Award, announced at a ceremony in London on Monday evening.
The Foreign Press Association Media Awards are among the most prestigious awards in the world and are dedicated to excellence in journalism from the world’s major broadcasters, newspapers, digital news and magazines.
The Reuters journalists were jointly awarded the Journalist of the Year Award 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. Both men have been in prison in Myanmar for nearly a year.
In what has become a landmark press freedom case, the court in Yangon charged Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and in September 2018, sentenced them to seven years in prison. In November 2018, Reuters filed an appeal on their behalf.
This year, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have also been awarded the 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.
Reuters published the investigation that prompted Myanmar police authorities to arrest Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in February of this year. You can read the full report here .
[Reuters Press Blog]
Media Contact:
Heather.Carpenter @ tr.com