Two Reuters journalists, by Buddhist villagers and Myanmar security forces, are among the Pulitzer prize winners.
The two honorees have been jailed for 490 days in Myanmar for their role in uncovering the killings.
The Reuters award was for an investigative report that revealed the massacre of 10 Muslim Rohingya at the village of Inn Din, in the heart of the conflict zone of Rakhine State in Myanmar.
Reuters journalists Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo (R). Source: EPA
READ MORE
Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar
, found a mass grave filled with bones sticking out of the ground. They went on to gather testimony from perpetrators, witnesses and families of victims.
They obtained three devastating photographs from villagers: two showed the 10 Rohingya men bound and kneeling; the third showed the mutilated and bullet-ridden bodies of the same 10 men in the same shallow grave.
In December 2017, before Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo could complete their story, they were arrested in what international observers have criticised as an effort by authorities to block the report.
The article, Massacre in Myanmar, was completed by colleagues Simon Lewis and Antoni Slodkowski and published in February of last year.
Press freedom activists hold copies of the front page of Time magazine's Person of the Year edition, highlighting the jailed journalists’ plight. Source: AP
In September, the two were sentenced to seven years imprisonment for violating the country's Official Secrets Act.
Reuters won another award for photographs of Central American migrants seeking refuge in the United States.
The Associated Press was also awarded the prize for international reporting
In other categories, coverage of mass shootings in the United States and investigations into US President Donald Trump featured prominently.
The New York Times and the Washington Post also each took two Pulitzers, the most prestigious prize in American journalism.
The New York Times won a prize for explanatory reporting of Trump's finances and tax avoidance and another for editorial writing by Brent Staples.
The Washington Post's Lorenzo Tugnoli won the feature photography prize for images of the famine in Yemen and the newspaper's Carlos Lozado also won for criticism.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested in Yangon for allegedly possessing top-secret documents. Source: AAP
The Wall Street Journal won the national reporting prize for uncovering Trump's secret payoffs to two women during his campaign who claimed to have had affairs with him.
Coverage of mass shootings in the United States was also recognised three times.
