Margie Mason is an American, Pulitzer-winning journalist. She's a native of

Daybrook Daybrook is a suburb of Arnold, Nottinghamshire. The area is located just outside the city of Nottingham but inside the conurbation of Greater Nottingham. It lies next to the areas of Arnold town centre, Sherwood, Woodthorpe, Redhill and Bes ...

, West Virginia and one of a handful of journalists who have been allowed to report from inside

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

. Mason has traveled, as a reporter, to more than 20 countries on four continents. She has worked for the ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' for more than a decade, and is the Indonesian Bureau chief and Asian medical and human-rights writer in

Jakarta, Indonesia Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

. She was one of four journalists from the ''Associated Press'' who won the 2016

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalis ...

, the 2015

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...

for Foreign Reporting, and the 2016

Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting is an award for journalists administered by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. The program was launched in 1991, with the goal of exposing examples of ...

Education and background

Mason was raised by her parents, Fred and Mary Mason, in Daybrook, West Virginia. She graduated from

Clay-Battelle High School Clay-Battelle Middle/High School is a secondary school (middle school and high school) in unincorporated Monongalia County, West Virginia, adjacent to Blacksville.Monongalia County, West Virginia. In 1997, She graduated from

West Virginia University Reed College of Media The WVU Reed College of Media is one of the sixteen colleges and schools at West Virginia University, located in Morgantown, West Virginia. It is currently housed in Martin Hall. History The WVU Reed College of Media was formerly known as the W ...

, (formerly known as West Virginia University Perley Reed School of Journalism). In 1999, she was the recipient of a journalism fellowship in Asian studies, at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, and was a 2009

Nieman The Neman, Nioman, Nemunas or MemelTo bankside nations of the present: Lithuanian: be, Нёман, , ; russian: Неман, ''Neman''; past: ger, Memel (where touching Prussia only, otherwise Nieman); lv, Nemuna; et, Neemen; pl, Niemen; ...

Global Health fellow at Harvard. In 2017, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from West Virginia University.

Career

At age 19, Mason, still a student at West Virginia University, worked for ''The Dominion Post'', as a typist and eventually reporting as an intern. After graduation, she worked for the ''

'', first in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...

, and then at

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. After she received her fellowship from the University of Hawaii, in 1999, she worked for the ''Associated Press'' in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California. In 2000, Mason traveled to

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

for the first time, reporting on the 25th anniversary of the

Fall of Saigon The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of ...

. She returned again in 2003, as an ''Associated Press'' correspondent in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

. In 2004 she reported from Indonesia on the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, she also covered the

bird flu "Bird Flu" is an urumee melam-dance song by recording artist M.I.A. on her second studio album '' Kala'' (2007). It was released as a digital download in 2006 through XL Recordings under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the US. Cr ...

SARS Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS coronavirus species, ''sever ...

H1N1 In virology, influenza A virus subtype H1N1 (A/H1N1) is a subtype of influenza A virus. Major outbreaks of H1N1 strains in humans include the Spanish flu, the 1977 Russian flu pandemic and the 2009 swine flu pandemic. It is an orthomyxovirus ...

, and other disease outbreaks. In 2009, Masons coverage of the issue of global

drug resistance Drug resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a medication such as an antimicrobial or an antineoplastic in treating a disease or condition. The term is used in the context of resistance that pathogens or cancers have "acquired", that is, ...

won the 2010

Science in Society Journalism award The Science in Society Journalism Awards are awards created by the American National Association of Science Writers (NASW) to honor and encourage "outstanding investigative and interpretive reporting about the sciences and their impact for good and ...

for "When Drugs Stop Working," with fellow reporter,

Martha Mendoza Martha Mendoza (born August 16, 1966) is an Associated Press journalist whose reporting has helped free over 2,000 enslaved fishermen and prompted action by the U.S. Congress and the White House. She earned her first Pulitzer Prize in the Inves ...

Reporting on slavery in Thailand's fishing fleets

A major milestone in Masons career was her work with other reporters on the staff of the ''Associated Press'' on the Pulitzer prize-winning series of stories about slave-labor in Thailand's

fishing industry The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...

. The series was the product of over a year of investigative reporting, and led to the rescue of over 2000 slaves in the fishing trade. Following the reporting, the U.S. State Department began their own investigation and new legislation was passed to help close loopholes that allowed sales of products produced with

slave labor Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

launched a boycott of Thai Union and

Chicken of the Sea Chicken of the Sea is a packager and provider of seafood, owned by the Thai Union Group in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. The brand is attached to tuna, salmon, clams, crab, shrimp, mackerel, oysters, kippers and sardines in cans, pouches and cups, as a ...

and supply chains serving major U.S. companies such as

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

Target Corporation Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincin ...

Dollar General Dollar General Corporation is an American chain of variety stores headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. As of April 11, 2022, Dollar General operates 18,216 stores in the continental United States. The company began in 1939 as a family-own ...

Petco Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. is an American pet retailer with corporate offices in San Diego and San Antonio. Petco sells pet food, products, and services, as well as certain types of live small animals. Founded in 1965 as a mail-ord ...

Olive Garden Olive Garden is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. It is a subsidiary of Darden Restaurants, Inc., which is headquartered in Orange County, Florida. As of 2012, Olive Garden restaurants accounted ...

, and

Red Lobster Red Lobster Hospitality LLC is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company has operations across most of the United States (including Puerto Rico, Guam) and Canada, as well as in China, Ecuador, Hong ...

, forcing them to refuse to make purchases from the Thai supplier. The series of stories began running in March, 2015, as listed below. * "US Supply Chain Tainted by Slave-Caught Fish," AP Video, March 24, 2015. * "AP Investigation: Are slaves catching the fish you buy?" Robin McDowell, ''Associated Press'', March 25, 2015. * "AP Investigation prompts emergency rescue of 300 plus slaves," Robin McDowell and Margie Mason, ''Associated Press'', April 3, 2015. * "US lets in Thai fish caught by slaves despite law," Martha Mendoza , ''Associated Press'', April 22, 2015. * " Seafood from Slaves: 22 years a slave," Margie Mason, ''Associated Press'', June 29, 2015. * "AP Exclusive: AP tracks slave boats to Papua New Guinea," Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Margie Mason, ''Associated Press'', July 27, 2015. * "AP Investigation prompts new round of slave rescues," Margie Mason and Martha Mendoza, July 30, 2015. * * "More than 2,000 enslaved fishermen rescued in 6 months," Ester Htusan and Margie Mason, ''Associated Press'', September 17, 2015. * * "Global supermarkets selling shrimp peeled by slaves," Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan, ''Associated Press'', December 14, 2015. The reporting led to coverage in numerous US newspapers as well as international coverage.

Awards

Mason and the staff of the Associated Press won multiple awards for the coverage of slave-labor in the fishing industry and are listed below. * 2015 The Hal Boyle Award for best newspaper reporting from abroad * 2015 the AP's Oliver S. Gramling Journalism Award recognizing AP staffers for professional excellence * 2015 University of Oregon's Ancil Award for Ethics in Journalism * 2015 Arizona State University’s Barlett & Steele (Gold) Award for Investigative Business Journalism * 2015 George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting * 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service * 2016 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting * 2016 Anthony Lewis Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism * 2016 Seldon Ring Award, recognizing investigative reporting that has had an impact and caused change * 2016

Michael Kelly Award The Michael Kelly Award is a journalism award sponsored by the Atlantic Media Company. It is given for "the fearless pursuit and expression of truth"; the prize is $25,000 for the winner and $3,000 for the runners-up. It is named for Michael Kell ...

for the fearless pursuit and expression of truth * 2021 Gerald Loeb Award for International for "Fruits of Labor", ''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Margie Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American journalists American women journalists Associated Press people West Virginia University alumni Nieman Fellows George Polk Award recipients 21st-century American women Gerald Loeb Award winners International