Pulitzer For Eye Opener Of A Shot

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Adrees Latif of Reuters won the prize on Monday for his dramatic photo of a Japanese videographer being attacked in Myanmar. The graphic photo shows the man, sprawled on the pavement, continuing to shoot with his camera after what turned out to be a fatal injury sustained in shooting that followed a street demonstration as troops attacked protesters during the Saffron Revolution of September, last year. Monks and nuns were under fire for their protests against the Burmese government and the Burmese police and army cracked down with brutal force. Foreign journalists were banned inside Myanmar, so the Reuters photographer went without media credentials. He sneaked in amongst the crowds to document the widespread unrest. In a first-person account posted by Reuters, Latif says that he did not realize at first that the man in his viewfinder was Japanese videographer Kenji Nagai. His colleagues later identified him from the photograph. Kenji Nagai did not survive. But Latif's photograph was plastered in newspaper around the world. Pictures say a thousand words, and this single snapshot brought home the ruthlessness with which Myanmar's military junta quelled anti-government protests.

The Pulitzer Prize board in its citation said Adrees Latif won for "his dramatic photograph of the Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar."

Latif has a BA in journalism from the University of Houston. After working for Reuters in the US, he moved to Bangkok in 2003 where he covers news across Asia.

Abdul Latif Mahmud, Adrees's father hopes his son's next awards come from less dangerous assignments, such as covering the Beijing Olympics this summer.

The Pulitzers are journalism's highest awards and given annually in various categories by Columbia University. They are named after the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in 1911. This year, The Washington Post won a record six Pulitzers, including for its coverage last year of the Virginia Tech massacre, in which a mentally ill student killed 32 people and committed suicide.