The Outlaw Ocean Project wins 2024 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism

According to Asia Society the 2024 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia is being awarded to The Outlaw Ocean Project, a nonprofit journalism outlet based in Washington, D.C., for “China: The Superpower of Seafood.” The $10,000 cash award is given annually by an independent jury to the best example of journalism about Asia during the previous calendar year.
As per statement, issued by Jury,“The Outlaw Ocean Project’s extraordinary series of reports, in multiple formats and published in media around the world, tells a complex story of China’s domination of the global seafood industry. Through years of diligent and at times perilous high-seas reporting, the Outlaw Ocean Project team tracked more than 700 vessels as far afield as Gambia and the Galapagos, staffed by workers who were in some cases virtual hostages, sending their haul back to factories where forced labor wasn’t uncommon. Their meticulous work exposed the environmental and human costs of this vast global enterprise, tracing fish from the depths of the ocean to consumers’ plates. The project was a model of transparency, too: The reporters made their exchanges with stakeholders public; produced videos tracing seafood; and explained how they were able to find and interview workers aboard ships half a world away.”
The Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia, affectionately referred to as the “Oz Prize,” honors the late Osborn Elliott, legendary journalist, author and former editor-in-chief of Newsweek. Elliott was a leading figure in the field of journalism who became one of the earliest practitioners of “civic journalism”—the deliberate focusing of the journalistic enterprise on urgent issues of public policy.