For Exposing China's Muslim Detention Camps, An Indian-Origin Journalist Wins The Pulitzer Prize.

Megha Rajagopalan, a licensed architect who specializes in forensic analysis of architecture and satellite images of buildings, collaborated with two contributors, Alison Killing, a licensed architect who specializes in forensic analysis of architecture and satellite images of buildings, and Christo Buschek, a programmer who builds tools tailored for data journalists, working from London and refusing to be silenced. BuzzFeed's Pulitzer Prize win in 2021 is the company's first.

The unique trio found more than 260 facilities built during 2017 using publicly available satellite data and dozens of interviews with former detainees. According to BuzzFeed News, China surreptitiously created these prisons and tenement camps as part of a campaign against Uyghur Muslims, despite publicly claiming that all of the detainees had been released.

Neil Bedi, another Indian-origin writer, received a Pulitzer in the local reporting category for investigative reports he wrote alongside an editor at the Tampa Bay Times about a law enforcement official in Florida abusing his position to track minors.

The Pulitzer Board stated Bedi and Kathleen McGrory won for reporting "how a powerful and politically connected sheriff developed a hidden intelligence operation that harassed citizens and utilized grades and child welfare information to profile kids."

The Pulitzer Prizes, presented by a board at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in New York to recognize excellent achievement, are in their 105th year.

The project of Ms. Megha is described as "a series of clear and compelling stories that use satellite imagery and architectural expertise, as well as interviews with two dozen former prisoners, to identify a vast new infrastructure built by the Chinese government for the mass detention of Muslims," according to the Pulitzer announcement.

Ms. Rajagopalan praised the sources' bravery in speaking to them despite the fear of reprisal against them and their families.

She was the first reporter to visit a detention camp used to confine Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province when the Chinese government was denying their existence, according to a report by BuzzFeed. She was deported shortly after, and the Chinese government did not renew her visa.

Every year, the Pulitzer Prizes are given out in twenty-one categories. Each winner receives a certificate and a cash prize of USD 15,000 in twenty of the categories. In addition, a gold medal is given to the winner of the public service category.