Award-Winning Photojournalists Face Industry Uncertainty
The 2026 award season highlights a paradox: winners may no longer have jobs. Jahi Chikwendiu won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for The Washington Post, but had taken a buyout in July 2025, anticipating layoffs. The Washington Post also won the Pulitzer for Public Service. Radio Free Asia, which paused operations in late 2025 due to federal funding cuts, won AAJA's Excellence in International Reporting and two Edward R. Murrow Awards in 2025. Former RFA senior visual journalist Gemunu Amarasinghe, furloughed and let go, was honored for his work on a project about Myanmar insurgents. RFA resumed some services in 2025 after funding returned on a smaller scale. The Trump Administration cut funding to the U.S. Agency for Global Media in March 2025, affecting RFA and Voice of America.
Key facts
- Jahi Chikwendiu won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for The Washington Post.
- Chikwendiu took a buyout from The Washington Post in July 2025.
- The Washington Post also won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
- Radio Free Asia won AAJA's Excellence in International Reporting in May 2026.
- Radio Free Asia paused operations in late 2025 due to federal funding cuts.
- Radio Free Asia resumed Burmese and Mandarin services by end of 2025.
- Gemunu Amarasinghe, former RFA senior visual journalist, was furloughed and let go in 2025.
- Radio Free Asia won two Edward R. Murrow Awards in August 2025.
Entities
Artists
- Jahi Chikwendiu
- Gemunu Amarasinghe
- Jim Snyder
Institutions
- Asian American Journalists Association
- Radio Free Asia
- The Washington Post
- National Press Photographers Association
- U.S. Agency for Global Media
- Voice of America
- The Associated Press
- Pulitzer Prize
- Edward R. Murrow Awards
- Best of Photojournalism
- Scripps College of Communication
- Ohio University
- Fort Myers News-Press
- Gannett
- Outdoor Advertising Association of America
Locations
- Washington, DC
- Silver Spring, Maryland
- Florida
- Tallahassee
- Myanmar
- Kayah state
- China
- Sri Lanka
- Asia
- East Africa
- United States