CNN International has won an Amnesty International Media award in the ‘International Television and Radio’ category, for the documentary, World’s Untold Stories: The Forgotten People. The winning half-hour documentary, presented by CNN’s Bangkok-based correspondent Dan Rivers, highlighted the on-going persecution of the ethnic Rohingya people in their bid to escape persecution and privation in Myanmar and neighbouring countries. Jurors at the award ceremony singled out CNN’s entry for particular praise for putting the issue high on the agenda at an ensuing Southeast Asian summit meeting and were impressed by a brilliant investigation that broke new ground and secured a personal commitment to intervene from the Thai prime minister. The haunting pictures of Thai soldiers towing boatloads of Rohingya and cutting them adrift on the high seas – first broadcast on CNN’s World’s Untold Stories – are one of the iconic images of 2009 and are credited with bringing the practice to worldwide attention.