Sara Aziz, student from Kolkata, wins top British Press Award

Kolkata freelance journalist and student Sarah Aziz won the second prize for “Young Journalist of the Year” at the UK’s annual Press Awards on May 22, according to a press release issued recently.

The 23-year-old girl is a Master of Science in Journalism student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She began her journalism career in 2023 while still pursuing her undergraduate degree in Kolkata.

As a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature student at Loreto College, Kolkata, Aziz reported on Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh for Voice of America, the American multimedia broadcasting network. This is the report which has won her the top British media award.

The honour at The Press Awards, often hailed as the most prestigious journalism prize in the UK, came taking into account Aziz’s investigative reporting for The Guardian and The Telegraph (UK).

In November 2024, Aziz published an investigative report in The Telegraph (UK) exposing the truth behind the “mysterious” death of a Rohingya child who had been detained by the Indian government in New Delhi. The multimedia report not only delved into the medical negligence and abuse faced by the child in detention, but also revealed the wider pattern of the mass arbitrary detention and torture of Rohingya refugees seeking refuge in India.

Earlier in the same year, Aziz had exposed the hidden scandal of rape and sexual abuse faced by incarcerated women in India, particularly in West Bengal. The investigative report, published in The Guardian, laid bare the tactics used by authorities to cover up crimes against some of the most vulnerable women in the country.

Aziz has extensively covered the persecution faced by Rohingya Muslims in India and Bangladesh for multiple international news outlets like The South China Morning Post, Voice of America and The Guardian. Her investigative breaking news reporting on the 2025 Bangladesh student protests was published in The Times (UK).

Aziz will be graduating from Columbia University with an MS in Journalism in August 2025.

Get the latest updates in , , , , and on & by subscribing to our channels. You can also download our app for and .