The Pulitzer Prize winner Myanmar

The AP team that investigated seafood caught by slaves poses at the George Polk Awards luncheon in New York,  Friday, April 8, 2016. From left: Martha Mendoza, Robin McDowell, Esther Htusan and Margie Mason. Photo: AP

A Kachin female journalist accompanied by other three member of the Associated Press (AP) team won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in public service for her reporting.

She and three members of the Associated Press (AP) team worked for an investigation of severe labour abuses in the Southeast Asian fishing industry that tied to the supply of seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants, reporting that freed 2,000 slaves, brought perpetrators to justice and inspired reforms.

Esther Htusan, 29, is the first ever woman journalist in Myanmar to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. –GNLM

Mandalay hosts international marionette festival

UNDER the supervision of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Goethe Institute in Yangon and the Myanmar Marionette Association, the Myanmar Upper Land tour company organised the Myanmar and International Marionette Drama Troupe Festival in Mandalay from 2 to 3 April.

Members of the public attended the festival free of charge.

The festival aimed to revive Myanmar marionette drama troupes and to preserve, upgrade and propagate Myanmar marionette arts. The organisers also sought to promote relations between Myanmar marionette artists with other artists around the world. 

During the festival, marionette troupes based in Yangon, Indonesia, Mandalay and Thai performed with a Myanmar traditional orchestra. Students entertained the public with Myanmar indigenous puppetry and modern marionettes created by U Ye Dway.—Tin Maung