Epoch Times Honored for Work Exposing Chinese Regime’s Human Rights Abuses

Reports on how the Chinese Communist Party takes organs from people imprisoned for spiritual beliefs win annual award for secular media coverage of religion.

A banner calling for the end of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China is displayed as practitioners demonstrate the spiritual practice's meditation, next to the United Nations in New York City on Sept. 20, 2023. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times

An Epoch Times reporter will be honored in April for her work in exposing communist China’s practice of harvesting organs from people imprisoned for their spiritual beliefs.

Eva Fu, who splits her time between New York City and Washington, was selected by the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) to receive a 2025 Wilbur Award. The award, given annually since 1949, is the top honor given by the organization. It is meant to recognize the “most outstanding work in the communication of religious issues, values, and themes in secular media,” according to a March 14 press release.

Judges reviewed submissions from news organizations around the world, including a collection of Fu’s articles submitted under the title “Killing the Faithful for Organs: The Brutal Secret Beijing Doesn’t Want Exposed.”

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“Many people in desperate need of organ transplants now visit China for surgery because waiting times are unusually short,” Fu wrote in a requested letter explaining why she pursues the topic so aggressively in her reporting.

“How many know their ready-to-transplant organs might be stolen from people imprisoned because of their spiritual beliefs? Surely, very few.”

Forced organ harvesting has long been a closely guarded secret of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Epoch Times has found that few around the world—with the exception of those involved—seem to understand that the regime’s supply of healthy organs for transplants often comes from imprisoned members of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It has been the target of a relentless campaign by the CCP to eradicate the practice in China and beyond.

Victims of organ harvesting often include members of other minorities and religious groups detained in China, such as Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims, and Christians.

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Fu said the CCP does not want the world to know about its forced organ harvesting, but that she is determined to keep drawing attention to it and the regime’s other crimes.

Jasper Fakkert, editor-in-chief of The Epoch Times, celebrated the award for Fu’s coverage.

“This is a great acknowledgement of our work exposing the atrocity of forced organ harvesting by the Chinese regime,“ he said. ”Ms. Fu and our broader reporter team will continue to expose these crimes.”

Epoch Times reporter Eva Fu near the U.S. Capitol on March 13, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

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The winners of this year’s Wilbur Award include 20 secular media outlets that published work in 2024 on the topics of faith and religion. Judges selected works from print and online journalism, books, podcasts, radio, television, and film for the award. Honorees will be celebrated on April 25 at a banquet at the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.

“I encourage anyone working in the communications field to attend the Wilbur Award presentation, as it is truly a celebration of inspiring stories as told by some of the best professional secular communicators working today,” Teresa Faust, president of RCC’s board of governors, said in a statement.

Wilbur Award contest coordinator Brad Pomerance said he was “impressed with the entries this year, which are heartening in how they approach topics of faith ... with a desire to foster understanding and connectedness.”

“Their work reflects our convention’s theme of ‘cooperation through communication’ and is evidence of the important role of communication in building bridges among various groups,” he said.

The RCC award is named for the late Marvin C. Wilbur, a pioneer in religious public relations, a longtime council leader, and a former Presbyterian Church executive.