Amnesty International has today unveiled the shortlist for its prestigious annual Media Awards.  The ten categories included in the 2014 Amnesty Media Awards cover print, broadcast, photo, and online journalism. There is also a special award for journalists who have been reporting human rights issues for less than five years  (the Gaby Rado Memorial Award), and a Student Award for those even newer to human rights journalism.  

Amnesty’s Media Awards, now in its 23rd year, recognises excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledges journalism’s significant contribution to the UK public’s awareness and understanding of human rights issues.  The winners of this year’s Awards will be announced at a ceremony at the BFI in central London on Tuesday 11 November.

This year, Amnesty received a record number of more than 200 entries for its ten categories, with the documentary category alone receiving 40 entries. 

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

“In a year where the perils of human rights reporting appear ever more evident, we want to congratulate the journalists who continue to bravely expose these issues.  The safer and simpler option is to not cover topics like immigration, racism, human trafficking, and the conflicts in Syria, and Iraq.  

“Yet, with a record number of top-quality entries to Amnesty’s Media Awards this year, we have seen that there is still an appetite across the UK media industry to deliver excellent, uncompromising reporting.  We look forward to celebrating with the runners-up and winners at the Awards ceremony in November.”

THE SHORTLIST

DIGITAL INNOVATION



Shout Art Loud: A 'living report' on art and sexual violence in Egypt

Melody Patry, Index on Censorship



The shirt on your back: the human cost of the Bangladeshi garment industry

Lindsay Poulton & Jason Burke, theguardian.com



Where the drones strike

Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Forensic Architecture and Situ Research



JUDGES: Siraj Datoo, Anna Doble, Liz Hazelton, Jody Thompson, Anna Bacciarelli

 

DOCUMENTARY



The Act of Killing

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer, Final Cut for Real / Sky TV



Dispatches: Children on the frontline

Marcel Mettelsiefen, Director: Anthony Wonke, ITN Productions / C4



Who is Dayani Cristal?

Directors: Marc Silver, Pulse Films



The Cruel Cut

Leyla Hussein, Director Vicki Cooper, Love Productions / C4



JUDGES: Ade Adepitan, Naresh Puri, Cathy Scott-Clark, Naomi Westland

 

GABY RADO MEMORIAL AWARD



Nail bar / Supermarket slaves / Slaves in peril on the sea

George Arbuthnott, Sunday Times Magazine



Revealed: Asian slave labour producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK: Trafficked into slavery on Thai trawlers to catch food for prawns; globalised slavery: how big supermarkets are selling prawns in supply chain fed by slave labour

Kate Hodal and Chris Kelly, The Guardian

 

Dispatches: Children on the frontline; Unreported World: Dancing in the danger zone

Marcel Mettelsiefen, Channel 4



JUDGES: Dermot Murnaghan, Xan Rice, Jonathan Rugman, Mike Thomson, Harriet Garland



 

MAGAZINES



Supplements

Binyavanga Wainaina interview: coming out in Kenya

Tim Adams, Observer New Review



Displaced persons series

AA Gill, The Sunday Times Magazine



Consumer

Hell is other people

Ed Caesar, GQ



The road to nowhere

Daniel Trilling, New Statesman



JUDGES: Bruno Bayley, Helen Joyce, Victoria Harper, Maggie Paterson

 

NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS



Egypt

Patrick Kingsley, The Guardian



Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

Pete Pattisson, The Guardian



The proof of Syria’s chemical attacks / The Face of Syria's collateral damage / Despair of the Syrian beggar boy

Ruth Sherlock, The Daily Telegraph



JUDGES: Stig Abell, Ursula Kenny, Sophie McBain, David Munk, Niall Couper



 

NATIONS AND REGIONS



Campaign to highlight the harm caused by female genital mutilation,

Martin Bentham, The London Evening Standard



Colombia - caught in the crossfire

Paul O'Hare, Daily Record



Racism in housing

Guy Lynn, BBC London TV News / Inside Out London



JUDGES: Michael Beard, Mark Devenport, Joyce McMillan, Patrick Corrigan

 

PHOTOJOURNALISM



Descent into Hell: Bloodshed in the Central African Republic

Marcus Bleasdale, Telegraph magazine



Fishing under fire off the Gaza Coast

Gianluca Panella, The Observer  



Unholy Matrimony - Bridge Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

Noriko Hayashi, Marie Claire UK



JUDGES: Shannon Jenson, Roger Tooth, Paul Conroy, Maggie Paterson

 

RADIO



Face the Facts: A Thousand Philomenas

John Waite, BBC Radio 4



The Detained

Catrin Nye, BBC Asian Network



Escape from Sinai

Mike Thomson, BBC Radio 4 / BBC World Service



JUDGES: Anita Anand, Andrew Bailey, Flora Hunter, Philippa Thomas, Eulette Ewart



 

STUDENT



Dreaming of Lampedusa

Ciaran Willis, Listen



Investigation: detainee harassment at Campsfield House

Redmond Traynor, The Oxford Student Paper



Project 'Reurbanizacao' VS “Occupies the whores”: The illegal crackdown on sex workers by the police in Niterói, Brazil

Janine Ewen, LSE Human Rights blog



JUDGES: Siobhan Sinnerton, Andrew Rawnsley, Dani Beckett

 

TV NEWS



Central African Republic: a country in crisis

Alex Thomson, Channel 4 News



Bucharest's King of the Sewers

Paraic O'Brien, Channel 4 News



Yarmouk

Lyse Doucet, BBC News



JUDGES: Ben de Pear, Simon Torkington, Anna Jones, Eulette Ewart