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Jailed Myanmar reporters win Pulitzer Prize for uncovering Rohingya Muslims killings

SHAFAQNA- Two jailed Reuters reporters won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for uncovering 10 Rohingya Muslims killings by Myanmar security forces.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been jailed for 490 days in Myanmar for their role in revealing the killings of Rohingya Muslims, won the prestigious award for international reporting on Monday.

They were arrested in December 2017 and are serving a seven-year sentence for violating the country’s colonial Official Secrets Act.

“I’m thrilled that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and their colleagues have been recognized for their extraordinary, courageous coverage,” Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J Adler said.

“I remain deeply distressed, however, that our brave reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are still behind bars.”

Thomson Reuters CEO Jim Smith said the news service “won’t be truly celebrating until Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are free”.

The men led an explosive Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya men in the far western village of Inn Dinn — part of a military-led campaign against the Muslim minority which began in 2017.

The honourees, both Myanmar citizens, found a mass grave filled with bones sticking out of the ground. They went on to gather testimony from perpetrators, witnesses and families of victims, Aljazeera told.

More than 720,000 Rohingya Muslins are estimated to have been forced to flee into Bangladesh as a result of the ensuing violence.

As the military tore through Rakhine state, allegedly killing with impunity, raping women and burning babies alive, authorities turned on the reporters trying to investigate the atrocities.

Pulitzer prize administrator Dana Canedy announced that the pair had been inducted into the elite group of winners. This was “for expertly exposing the military units and Buddhist villagers responsible for the systematic expulsion and murder of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, courageous coverage that landed its reporters in prison”, CNN reported.

Journalists Maggie Michael, Maad al-Zikry and Nariman El-Mofty of the Associated Press agency also won the same award for their coverage of famine and torture during Yemen’s civil war.

The Washington Post was a finalist for the public service medal for its coverage of the murder of Saudi journalist and Post columnist Jamal Khassoggi inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

 

Read more from Shafaqna:

India arrests dozens of Rohingya Muslims stranded on Bangladesh border

Rohingya Muslims stranded between India, Bangladesh border

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