Dake Kang
Best investigative reporting in any medium on an international story
AWARD DATE: 2020
AWARD NAME: The Roy Rowan Award 2020
AWARD RECIPIENTS: Dake Kang and AP Staff
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: The Associated Press
AWARD HONORED WORK: “China Cracks Down”
AWARD SPONSOR: Marcus Rowan
The AP disclosed how specific actions by China all but assured the spread of Covid around the world and inflicted draconian human rights abuses on the nation’s Uighur minority. Led by AP Beijing reporter Dake Kang, the series revealed that for six days China’s leaders held off alerting the public as to the great danger posed by the virus, setting the stage for its global spread. The AP team obtained thousands of pages of internal Chinese government documents and conducted hundreds of interviews at great personal risk – in Wuhan at the height of the epidemic and often at night, using encrypted messages and multiple phones to avoid detection by Chinese police.
Read the winning work here:
China didn’t warn public of likely pandemic for 6 key days
AP China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO
China testing blunders stemmed from secret deals with firms
China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins
In China’s Xinjiang, forced medication accompanies lockdown
China’s ‘War on Terror’ uproots families, leaked data shows
China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, sterilization, abortion (with video)
China-made phones, tablets tainted by coerced Uighur labor
Citation for Excellence:
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, FRONTLINE, The New York Times and 34 other media partners
“Luanda Leaks”
Watch pre-recorded acceptance remarks via the window below: