Pulitzer Center Grantees Win One World Media Awards

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Pulitzer Center-supported journalists were honored at the 2024 One World Media Awards on June 19 in London. The One World Media Awards celebrate the best journalism from the Global South. This year’s winners were chosen from over 500 entries from 117 countries, according to the organization’s website.

AI Accountability Fellow Varsha Bansal has won the Freelancer of the Year award. Bansal is an independent tech reporter based in Bangalore, India. For her Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Fellowship, she investigated how gig workers in India are affected by AI. Her Center-supported story “Gig Workers Are Being Stabbed, Beaten, and Abused in India,” published in Wired, details how rideshare drivers can face hostility and physical assault but receive little protection from the companies that contract them. Already tenuous for the 23 million people in India who rely on it for income, gig work has seen an uptick in violence. Bansal reveals data on reported incidents, religious discrimination, and lack of accountability from rideshare companies.

Honoured to have received Freelance Journalist of the Year award by @onewm. 

Thanks @PeterGuest for commissioning the stories, and @pulitzercenter for supporting my reportage. pic.twitter.com/U5OJUZoGoz

— Varsha Bansal (@VarshaaBansal) June 21, 2024

Bruno Federico and the team at Al Jazeera took the top award in the Current Affairs category for the Center-supported film The Confession. The film documents a confession from a Colombian colonel who admits to covering up the killing of 53 innocent civilians in the mid-2000s, during the country’s war against armed rebels. At that time, soldiers falsified military success by framing civilians as rebels and executing thousands, Colombia’s truth commission revealed in 2022. Now, the military officials responsible for these war crimes can claim freedom in exchange for their testimony. The documentary interweaves stories of a colonel and a family member of the victims and asks how far forgiveness can go in a post-conflict society.

Thank you @onewm for honoring @AJFaultLines “The Confession” about extrajudicial killings in Colombia and the country’s truth and reconciliation process with this year’s “Current Affairs Award”. Congrats to the amazing team: @JeremyRaff @BrunoFederico9 @simonebru @leslieatkins pic.twitter.com/SjTBYh5gCz

— Laila Al-Arian (@LailaAlarian) June 19, 2024

Ian Urbina and the Outlaw Ocean Project also won a Special Mention for their Pulitzer Center project China: The Superpower of Seafood. The project investigates human rights violations and environmental crimes on Chinese fishing ships in Ecuadorian waters.

At the awards ceremony, the Pulitzer Center was also proud to announce a new partnership to commission a filmmaker for a short documentary on climate and labor for the Center’s Our Work/Environment initiative.

“Pulitzer Center is delighted to work with OWM and the Financial Times on this important area of coverage,” said Executive Editor Marina Walker Guevara. “We look forward to partnering with a filmmaker in the Global South to explore and explain how workers and work itself is at risk from a fast-heating planet.”

Watch the ceremony here and view the full list of award winners here.