Rappler among finalists of 2018 Osborn Elliott Prize

MANILA, Philippines – Rappler’s coverage of the Philippine drug war was announced as one of 3 finalists for the 2018 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia. 

Reporter Patricia Evangelista and photographer Carlo Gabuco were selected for multiple investigations into police killings published under Rappler’s Impunity Series in 2017. (READ: Where the drug war began)

Asia Society made the announcement on Thursday, April 26. Rappler joins teams from the Associated Press and Reuters for their coverage of the Rohingya and deadly violence in Myanmar. The selections were made by an independent jury.

The Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia is a $10,000-cash award presented annually to the best example of journalism about Asia in the previous year. Asia Society calls the prize “the premier honor bestowed for excellence in journalism on Asia.” Past winners include Ellen Barry of The New York Times, Sudarsan Raghavan of The Washington Post, and teams from Bloomberg News, Reuters, and The International Herald Tribune. 

The Oz Prize is in honor of the late journalist Osborn Elliott. Elliott was the former editor-in-chief of Newsweek and described as “one of the earliest practitioners of civic journalism.”

In a statement, the jury said that the finalist entries were “outstanding pieces of accountability journalism, shedding light on egregious behavior by people in power against people who were largely powerless.” 

The winner will be announced the week of April 30. They will be honored in New York on Wednesday, May 23. 

The jury is chaired by Marcus Brauchli, managing partner of North Base Media and former editor of the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Joining him are Dorinda Elliott, SVP/Director, Center for Business, China Institute; Mei Fong, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author; Alec McCabe, Bloomberg Emerging Markets; and Somini Sengupta, international climate change reporter, The New York Times.

Evangelista and Gabuco – himself a Magnum Foundation grantee – were also the recipients of a Human Rights Press Award for their work on the drug war. Evangelista has also won Excellence in Feature Writing at the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards.

Below are the finalists in full:

• Associated Press – Todd Pitman, Kristin Gelineau, Robin McDowell, Esther Htusan, Muneeza Naqvi and photos/video by Wong Maye-E, Rishabh Raj Jain, Bernat Armangue, Gemunu Amarasinghe and Dar Yasin – for a series on the “Rohingya Exodus” following a campaign of deadly violence in Myanmar, that the jury called “thorough and heartbreaking, impactful and moving.”
• Reuters – specifically Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo – for coverage of the anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar and refugee camps in Bangladesh which was “courageous and risk-taking in its real-time chronicling of mass atrocities.”
• Rappler – Patricia Evangelista with photography by Carlo Gabuco – coverage of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines’ state-sanctioned drug war, demonstrating “vivid reporting by a locally-based Southeast Asian news outlet.” ­– Rappler.com