And now, some incredible news.
Esther Htusan, a Myanmar journalist from Kachin State, has won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service journalism alongside three of her colleagues from the Associated Press for an investigation into the Southeast Asian fishing industry that “freed 2,000 slaves, brought perpetrators to justice and inspired reforms,” according to the announcement.
Though the AP now has 52 Pulitzers to its name, Htusan and journalists Margie Mason, Robin McDowell and Martha Mendoza earned the US-based news wire its first Public Service prize, considered the most prestigious of the annual awards.
Htusan is also believed to be the first Myanmar journalist, and certainly the first Kachin journalist, to take home the prize.
The Public Service prize is slightly different than other Pulitzers in that it is technically awarded to the news organization (in this case, the AP), not specific individuals.
Before the AP got involved, there had been many stories, even in-depth ones, about labor abuses in the largely Thai seafood industry, where migrant workers from nearby countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia were subjected to forced labor and modern slavery.
But the AP took it up a notch, using satellite imagery and connecting the dots to distributors in the US in what was a described as a “painstaking” yearlong investigation.
You can read more about the details of how it came about here.
Htusan was unavailable for comment but her Facebook page was filled with congrats from colleagues and friends.
“Today a woman who lived in Kachin State wins a Pulizer prize for her reporting on slavery in Indonesia. The first woman journalist from Burma won the journalism award ever. I am touched and moved by this news,” read one comment.
“Wow! First Kachin Pulitzer [sic] price winner. Congratulations on achieving the highest literary honor, and we can’t be proud enough, Esther Htusan. Your work is on the same roster as Arthur Miller, Harper Lee, Alice Walker, and Robert Frost,” another said.
Reader Interactions