New Delhi: Megha Rajagopalan, an Indian-origin journalist won the US' top journalism award the Pulitzer Prize for innovative investigative reports harnessing satellite technology that exposed China's mass detention camps for Muslim Uighurs and other minority ethnicites.


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Rajagopalan from BuzzFeed News and two Indian-origin journalists won the US’ top journalism award which was announced by the Pulitzer Board on Friday. Rajagopalan’s Xinjiang series won the Pulitzer Prize in the International Reporting category.


Minutes after she won, Rajagopalan told BuzzFeed News she wasn't even watching the ceremony live because she wasn't expecting to win. "I'm in complete shock, I did not expect this," Rajagopalan said over the phone from London, PTI reported.


Rajagopalan, who had previously reported from China but was barred from there for the story, travelled to neighbouring Kazhakstan to interview former detainees who had fled there, BuzzFeed said.


According to the publication, she and her colleagues, Alison Killing and Christo Buschek, identified 260 detention camps after building a voluminous database of about 50,000 possible sites comparing censored Chinese images with uncensored mapping software.


The three of them analysed thousands of satellite images of the Xinjiang region to try and figure out where were 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities being detained.


Barred from China, Rajagopalan travelled to its neighbouring country Kazakhstan, where many Chinese Muslims have sought refuge. There, she located more than two dozen people who had been prisoners in the Xinjiang camps, winning their trust and convincing them to share their nightmarish accounts with the world.


"I'm so grateful they stood up and were willing to talk to us. It takes so much unbelievable courage to do that," she said. 


Pulitzer prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a USD 15,000 cash award. The winner in the public service category is awarded a gold medal.


(With inputs from agencies)