The Religious Communicators Council has recognized fair, honest, and brilliant religion reporting in secular media since 1949.
Copies of The Epoch Times are printed in Wayne, N.J., on Jan. 24, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times
Two Epoch Times journalists were honored on April 17 for work examining how a spiritual practice transformed communist China in the 1990s and why a growing number of young men are stepping into the spotlight of the pro-life movement.
The Religious Communicators Council, which has recognized fair, honest, and brilliant religion reporting in secular media since 1949, honored Eva Fu and T.J. Muscaro with Awards of Excellence at its annual convention in Cincinnati.
Epoch Times senior editor and “American Thought Leaders” host Jan Jekielek and his team were also recognized with an Award of Excellence for a video interview with Sam Brownback, former ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, about why religious freedom may be America’s greatest leverage against China.
The Wilbur Award, the council’s top honor, was presented to 25 media outlets.
In total, the council awarded more than 100 recipients from approximately 40 outlets, including NBC, The Associated Press, and NPR, for their work in communicating religious issues and values across print and online journalism, book publishing, podcasts and radio, television and film.
Fu, who has covered human rights and other China-related topics for six years at The Epoch Times, said in an interview that the award was a tribute to Falun Gong practitioners who have courageously and peacefully endured 26 years of persecution under the Chinese Communist Party.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline and meditation practice introduced to the public in 1992 that teaches the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. In July 1999, the Chinese regime launched a brutal persecution campaign aimed at crushing the practice after more people were found to be practicing Falun Gong than were members of the Chinese Communist Party.
“I’ve long known about this persecution, how it happened and the fact that it has continued for such a long time, but the question remains, ‘What has sustained them through all these years?’ That kind of sparked this project,” Fu said. “It was like, instead of just talking about the pain, let’s focus on what’s behind it and what has inspired them to go on.”
Through witness interviews and archival research, Fu traced how Falun Gong swept across China before the persecution began and how the spiritual practice, with its gentle exercises and moral teachings, transformed one life after another, leaving in each a wellspring of strength that would sustain them in the ensuing storm.
Last year, Fu won a Wilbur Award for her work exposing forced organ harvesting from prisoners of faith in communist China.
Eva Fu and T.J. Muscaro at the annual convention of Religion Communicators Council in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 17, 2026. Courtesy of T.J. Muscaro
Muscaro, an Epoch Times reporter who has covered space, natural disasters, and national politics, said in an interview that his winning story shed light on an underreported voice in the pro-life movement, that of young men who appreciate the weight on the shoulders of pregnant women and want to help carry it alongside them.
Most such young men are inspired by their faith, while some have come to the cause through personal experience. One such interviewee, whose father volunteers at an abortion reversal hotline, told Muscaro that he had altered his perspective on abortion after hearing stories about women wanting to reverse first-trimester abortions.
“I want to step out of the entire argument, the pro-choice versus pro-life debate, to see both sides for what they are, and to simply present them as they are,” said Muscaro, who had covered the pro-life camp while following the 2024 reelection campaign of former President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race.
Brad Pomerance, Wilbur Awards coordinator and member of council’s Board of Governors, said in a press release that this year’s competition drew a record-breaking number of entries from across the United States and around the world.
“It’s inspiring to see storytellers use their craft to bring people together through understanding and respect,” he said.