Year
2018
Category
All Media: Coverage of a Major News Event or Issue
“The Rohingya Exodus” was one of the first in-depth documentaries to investigate the mass displacement of the ethnic minority from Myanmar into Bangladesh. Reporter Drew Ambrose was at the border to witness the arrival of almost 700,000 refugees in a matter of weeks. Four months later, reporter Karishma Vyas’s “Brides and Brothels: The Rohingya Trade” exposed the sexual exploitation of Rohingya refugees and child marriage within the community. 101 East producer Liz Gooch broke the news that fleeing Rohingya refugees had reached Malaysia for the first time since the violence broke out in Myanmar. Many of her sources provided information that alleged Myanmar’s military was receiving payments to smuggle refugees out of the restive areas and into Thailand.
Drew Ambrose is a senior producer and foreign correspondent for Al Jazeera English in Malaysia. He has worked on current affairs programs Insight, Australian Story and Living Black and as a video-journalist from the ABC’s Jakarta Bureau.
Karishma Vyas is an Emmy-nominated journalist and the 2018 Walkley Freelance Journalist of the Year.
Liz Gooch is currently a senior producer for 101 East. She has reported for international media including Al Jazeera, The New York Times, CNN and the South China Morning Post, and has also worked for The Age.
Judges’ comments:
““The Rohingya Exodus” was one of the first documentaries to investigate this textbook example of ethnic cleansing both from the Bangladesh border and inside Myanmar itself. Then, “Brides and Brothels” exposed the sexual exploitation of teenage Rohingya refugees and forced child marriage. Without doubt, these two programs helped change world opinion and galvanize multilateral support for the beleaguered Rohingya.”