Left to right: Simon Denyer, Emily Rauhala and Elizabeth Dwoskin. Photos: Bill O’Leary/Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post
Best newspaper, news service or digital coverage of international affairs
AWARD DATE: 2016
AWARD NAME: 02 The Bob Considine Award
AWARD RECIPIENTS: Simon Denyer, Emily Rauhala and Elizabeth Dwoskin
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: The Washington Post
AWARD HONORED WORK: “Behind the Firewall”
AWARD SPONSOR: William J. Holstein and Rita Sevell
In “Beyond the Firewall,” Washington Post reporters confronted a subject of vast dimensions and epic implications: the Internet in China. The idea of the Internet as an inherently democratizing force for good has run up against the reality of China’s campaign to censor in cyberspace. The team took readers into the fascinating and bizarre world behind the “Great Firewall.” They explained how the authoritarian regime in Beijing has utilized social media and web usage to create an Orwellian surveillance tool, the “social credit rating,” to punish and reward every citizen. They interviewed dissidents who test the boundaries of an implacable crackdown that has succeeded in blocking tens of thousands of websites, yet tolerates certain loopholes for a globally connected minority. The series was smart, vivid and effective, bringing alive a difficult subject. It explored a frontier where geopolitics and technology converge, presenting counter-intuitive questions about how governments manage ever-sprawling societies that have the potential to affect vast numbers of people, far beyond China and far into the future.
See links below to stories included in the “Behind the Firewall” award entry:
- Read: For Beijing, censorship is working (by Simon Denyer) >>
- Read: Behind the firewall: Censorship bubble is far from airtight (by Simon Denyer) >>
- Read Behind the Firewall: How China tamed the Internet (by Simon Denyer) >>
- Read: Behind the Firewall: Despite many roadblocks, Chinese start-ups find their way (by Emily Rauhala) >>
- Read: China’s plan to rate citizens instills fear and loathing (by Simon Denyer) >>
- Read: Behind The Firewall (by Emily Rauhala and Elizabeth Dwoskin) >>
Citation Recipients: Tom Burgis, Pilitia Clark, Michael Peel, Charlie Bibby and Kari-Ruth Pedersen
Affiliation: Financial Times
Honored Work: “The Great Land Rush”