Best investigative reporting in any medium on an international story
AWARD YEAR: 2023
AWARD NAME: 21 The Roy Rowan Award 2023
RECIPIENTS: Ian Urbina, Joe Galvin, Maya Martin, Susan Ryan and Staff of the Outlaw Ocean Project
AFFILIATION: The New Yorker and The Outlaw Ocean Project
HONORED WORK: “The Crimes Behind the Seafood You Eat”
The result of four years of daring, sometimes dangerous reporting, this sweeping investigation exposes the ruthless measures China used to create the world’s largest commercial fishing fleet. Now the undisputed superpower of seafood, China’s fishing industry as revealed here is essentially a criminal enterprise, widely dependent on captive deckhands, illegal fishing, and state-sponsored forced labor. Clandestine interviews by Outlaw Ocean journalists on the high seas and in Chinese processing plants give us a chilling view of how China maintains its position atop a world industry whose products often end up on the tables of American consumers. Picked up by media around the world and translated into other languages, this investigation triggered outrage and calls for reform from human rights organizations and the U.S. Congress.
Link to the winning work:
“The Crimes Behind the Seafood You Eat”
Citation for Excellence:
Zachary R. Mider and Bloomberg News Staff
Bloomberg News
“Bad Medicine”