CNN International has won an Amnesty International Media award in the ‘International Television and Radio’ category for its 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 terrible persecution and privation in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and in neighboring countries.

Jurors at the award ceremony last night 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.

CNN International executive vice president and managing director Tony Maddox says, "This award is a tremendous reflection on the quality and depth of CNN’s reporting, the tenacity, bravery and resourcefulness of our correspondent Dan Rivers and an endorsement of the network's strategy to own and create more content.”

“It is a testament to CNN’s London based managing editor Deborah Rayner and the World’s Untold Stories team in Atlanta that only the third edition of the documentary series, produced by CNN International, has won such a prestigious award so soon," he adds.

World’s Untold Stories was brought in-house in January 2009, following the recruitment of Deborah Rayner from the UK’s Channel 4.

The allegations of mistreatment of the Rohingya in the neighboring country of Thailand - at the hands of the military - prompted a government inquiry. The Thai prime minister told CNN in an exclusive interview with Dan Rivers that he promised to bring those responsible to account.

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.

“This story underscores all the reasons why I became a journalist”, says Rivers. “It’s about getting the facts and using those facts to engage an audience and make a difference.”