And the Photo Award Winner Is… Perhaps No Longer There
The media award season — a time for applause — also highlights an irony of the fast-changing marketplace: the winners could be gone.
In May, the Asian American Journalists Association announced that Radio Free Asia won AAJA’s award for Excellence in International Reporting, praising photography and text in RFA’s multimedia reporting on Myanmar.
Radio Free Asia paused operations late last year as its federal funding dried up: “effective Oct. 31, Radio Free Asia (RFA) will halt all production of news content for the time being.” By the end of 2025, RFA had restored Burmese and Mandarin-language services.
In February, RFA said it resumed broadcasting to audiences in China in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur, as federal funding returned on a smaller scale. With congressional funding enacted this year, RFA is on track to rebuild its remaining language content. Most services have resumed programming, according to a spokesman.
The Washington Post
Jahi Chikwendiu won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography published by The Washington Post. In its May 4 report on 2026 Pulitzer Prizes, The Post referred to Chikwendiu as a “former staff photographer.”
“I was not directly affected by the latest layoffs (at The Washington Post) because I took the July 2025 buyout,” he said. “I clearly saw the writing on the wall regarding The Washington Post newsroom leadership’s view of photos and the photo department as well as their overall positions regarding news and the direction of the paper.”
The Pulitzer Prize judges described Chikwendiu’s winning work as “a heart-wrenching and achingly beautiful photo essay on a young family welcoming the birth of their first child as the father is slowly dying from cancer.”
The Washington Post also won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Executive Editor Matt Murray was quoted by The Post after the Pulitzer Prizes were announced: “As difficult as some of what we’ve been through is and as challenging as the moment can be to navigate, we all want a thriving and growing Washington Post in what is a very difficult industry, because this kind of work is so important. I hope people who have opinions about The Post or thoughts about The Post have the opportunity to revisit it and look at the work that we’re really doing every day.”
Earlier this year, Chikwendiu and other former Washington Post colleagues were honored by Best of Photojournalism competition sponsored the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA).
Radio Free Asia
Radio Free Asia, a private nonprofit funded by the U.S. government, was established three decades ago to provide domestic and local news to Asian countries with limited press freedom.
In March 2025, the Trump Administration ordered cuts to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and other networks delivering uncensored news to regions with limited or no press freedom.
Radio Free Asia announced widespread furloughs in May 2025 and halted most of its operations later in the year.
But Radio Free Asia continued to win awards, including two Edward R. Murrow Awards in August 2025.
“Feeling both honored and deeply moved today,” said former RFA Senior Visual Journalist Gemunu Amarasinghe after the Murrow awards were announced. “Radio Free Asia has received two national Edward R. Murrow Awards for 2025 — a recognition that brings immense pride but also underscores the heartbreaking realities behind both the stories and the suspension of RFA’s work due to federal funding cuts.”
Amarasinghe was furloughed in 2025 and then let go.
In May of 2026, when the Asian American Journalists Association said Radio Free Asia won its international reporting award, AAPA featured Amarasinghe with RFA colleagues who produced the winning project (“Battling a dictatorship, building a democracy: In the jungles of eastern Myanmar, insurgents fight the junta and dram of a new state.”)
AAJA described Amarasinghe’s award-winning visual communication talent:
“Gemunu Amarasinghe is a Washington, DC-based multimedia photojournalist. He has covered conflict, human rights, and politics in Asia, East Africa, and the United States, most recently with Radio Free Asia and previously with The Associated Press. His reporting and visuals have won numerous awards, including the National Edward R. Murrow Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the RFK Book and Journalism Award, and National Headliner Awards. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Gemunu is a self-taught photographer.”
About the author: Ken Klein lives in Silver Spring, Maryland; he is retired after a career in politics, lobbying, and media including The Associated Press and Gannett in Florida. Klein is an alumnus of Ohio University and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Scripps College of Communication. Professionally, he has worked for Fort Myers News-Press (Gannett), The Associated Press (Tallahassee), Senator Bob Graham, and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA).
