Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing and Christo Buschek of BuzzFeed News

For a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, using any available journalistic tool, Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).

For a series of clear and compelling stories that used 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. (Moved by the Board from the Explanatory Reporting category, where it was also entered and nominated.)

Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing and Christo Buschek accept the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting from Columbia University President Lee Bollinger. (Jose Lopez/The Pulitzer Prizes)

Winning Work

August 27, 2020

China Secretly Built A Vast New Infrastructure To Imprison Muslims

August 27, 2020

What They Saw: Ex-Prisoners Detail The Horrors Of China's Detention Camps

August 27, 2020

Blanked-Out Spots On China's Maps Helped Us Uncover Xinjiang's Camps

December 3, 2020

Inside A Xinjiang Detention Camp

December 28, 2020

We Found The Factories Inside China’s Mass Internment Camps

September 26, 2020

A Uighur Woman Who Was At Risk Of Being Forcibly Sent Back To China And Detained Has Arrived Safely In The US

Biography

Megha Rajagopalan is an award-winning international correspondent for BuzzFeed News, based in London. She has been a staff correspondent for BuzzFeed News based in China and Thailand as well as in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and before that she was a political correspondent for Reuters in China. She has reported from 23 countries in Asia and the Middle East on stories ranging from the North Korean nuclear crisis to the peace process in Afghanistan. Her work has been translated into 7 languages, been taught in classrooms at Columbia and NYU, and was anthologized in 2018's What Future: The Year's...

Alison Killing is a licensed architect and geospatial analyst who uses maps and data to investigate urgent social issues.

Christo Buschek is a programmer and digital security trainer. He builds tools tailored for data journalists and human rights defenders.

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in International Reporting in 2021:

BuzzFeed News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Washington, D.C.

For a massive reporting project that yielded sweeping revelations about the ongoing role of some of the world’s biggest banks in facilitating international money laundering and the trafficking of goods and people, corruption that continues to frustrate regulators across the world.

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For an authoritative and deeply reported portrait of China’s nationalist leader Xi Jinping and his increasingly authoritarian control of the state, its economy, and politics, conducted even after the news organization was expelled from the country.

Staff of The New York Times

For a masterful synthesis of stellar writing, powerful images and engaging interactives that illustrated how the world was unprepared for a fast-moving global pandemic — and failed to contain it.

The Jury

Sewell Chan (Chair)

Editorial Page Editor, Los Angeles Times

Hannah Dreier*

National Reporter, The Washington Post

Indira Lakshmanan

Senior Executive Editor, News/Features, National Geographic Partners

Marjorie Miller

Vice President/Global Enterprise Editor, Associated Press

Nancy San Martin

Freelance Editor/Writer, Miami, Fla.

Winners in International Reporting

2023

Staff of The New York Times

For their unflinching coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including an eight-month investigation into Ukrainian deaths in the town of Bucha and the Russian unit responsible for the killings.

2022

Staff of The New York Times, notably Azmat Khan, contributing writer

For courageous and relentless reporting that exposed the vast civilian toll of U.S.-led airstrikes, challenging official accounts of American military engagements in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. (Moved by the Board from the Public Service category, where it was also nominated.)

2020

Staff of The New York Times

For a set of enthralling stories, reported at great risk, exposing the predations of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

2019

Staff of Reuters, with notable contributions from Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo

For expertly exposing the military units and Buddhist villagers responsible for the systematic expulsion and murder of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, courageous coverage that landed its reporters in prison.

See all International Reporting

2021 Prize Winners

General Nonfiction

Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, by David Zucchino (Atlantic Monthly Press)

A gripping account of the overthrow of the elected government of a Black-majority North Carolina city after Reconstruction that untangles a complicated set of power dynamics cutting across race, class and gender.

Poetry

Postcolonial Love Poem, by Natalie Diaz (Graywolf Press)

A collection of tender, heart-wrenching and defiant poems that explore what it means to love and be loved in an America beset by conflict.

Drama

The Hot Wing King, by Katori Hall

A funny, deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition.

Music

Stride, by Tania León (Peermusic Classical)

Premiered at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City on February 13, 2020, a musical journey full of surprise, with powerful brass and rhythmic motifs that incorporate Black music traditions from the US and the Caribbean into a Western orchestral fabric.

See all 2021 winners