Lunch and welcome starts at 12 p.m.
Discussion begins at 12:30 p.m.

Join us as we honor Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in absentia with the 2018 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia. The Burmese journalists led a team of Reuters reporters in Myanmar and Bangladesh providing searing accounts of violence against the Rohingya. Their arrest in December prompted an international outcry, but efforts to secure their release have failed to date.

NPR correspondent Deborah Amos moderates a conversation with Reuters' Regional Editor for Asia Kevin Krolicki, and Shoon Naing, a Myanmar-based correspondent for Reuters. They will be joined by Lawi Weng, a senior reporter with the Irrawaddy, to discuss the challenges facing reporters and news organizations covering the situation of the Rohingya. Jury Chair Marcus Brauchli will make remarks and present the award. 

Now in its 15th year, Asia Society’s “Oz Prize” is the premier honor bestowed for excellence in journalism on Asia. It honors the late Osborn Elliott, the legendary journalist and longtime Newsweek editor, who set new standards for reporting and editing and became one of the earliest practitioners of "civic journalism." 

Previous winners of the Oz Prize are: Ellen Barry, New York Times (2017); Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post (2016); Bloomberg News team (2015); Reuters team (2014); Bloomberg News team (2013); April Rabkin, Fast Company (2012); Keith Bradsher, New York Times (2010), International Herald Tribune team (2009); Shai Oster, Wall Street Journal (2008); Evan Osnos, Chicago Tribune (2007); Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times; and Matthew McAllester, Newsday (2006); Philip P. Pan, Washington Post (2005); John Pomfret, Washington Post (2004); and Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times (2003).

For more information visit: AsiaSociety.org/ozprize

Speakers

Deborah Amos covers the Middle East for NPR News and is reporting on refugee resettlement and immigration in the U.S. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-­winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In 2017 Amos won the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award. In 2013 she won the Alfred I. DuPont-­Columbia Award, the George Foster Peabody Award and was honored by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for her coverage of the Syrian uprising.

Marcus Brauchli is the Jury Chair for the Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia. He serves as managing partner at North Base Media and as an advisor to Graham Holdings Co. His career in journalism has included stints as executive editor of the Washington Post, and as the top editor at the Wall Street Journal, where he spent 15 years as a correspondent and bureau chief in Asia and Europe.

Kevin Krolicki is Regional Editor, Asia, for Reuters. Previously, he was Regional Editor for the Americas and prior to that, Washington Bureau Chief. In a 20-year career with Reuters he has worked as an editor and reporter in Singapore, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Detroit and Washington. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan.

Shoon Naing is a Reuters correspondent, based in Myanmar. She joined Reuters in 2016 and studied at Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Lawi Weng, a journalist in Myanmar, has repeatedly risked his life to report on military abuses against ethnic minorities in Myanmar. As a senior reporter for the Irrawaddy, one of the few media organizations providing independent coverage of Myanmar while it was controlled by the military before a democratic transition in 2011, Lawi Weng strove to give a voice to victims of state sponsored murder, rape, and displacement.