Amnesty International UK Media Awards 2024 winners announced

Awards hosted by comedian Nish Kumar

BBC Africa Eye and Panorama took home award for best Broadcast Feature, while Sky News won Broadcast News

Outstanding Impact Award dedicated to the journalists risking their lives to report in Gaza

The winners of Amnesty International UK’s prestigious Media Awards 2024 have been announced this evening at a ceremony held in London, hosted by comedian, presenter and political commentator Nish Kumar.

The annual Media Awards, which are now in their 32nd year, highlight excellence in human rights journalism, as well as the bravery of journalists who risk their lives to uncover human rights abuses around the world and hold power to account.

The awards span 10 categories and were open to all media outlets based in the UK. All entries were published or broadcast for the first time in the UK between 1 January and 31 December 2023.

BBC Africa Eye and Panorama on the award for best Broadcast Feature for ‘Sex for Work: The True Cost of our Tea’ – a documentary on sexual exploitation on tea farms in Kenya. The winner of the Gaby Rado Award for New Journalist also went to Linda Ngari for her BBC Africa investigation into abortion access in Kenya.

Sky News took home the award in the Broadcast News category for ‘Myanmar’s Hidden War’, while ‘Murdered, tortured or in hiding from the Taliban: The special forces abandoned by Britain’ – a collaborative piece between the Independent and Lighthouse Reports – won the award for best Written News piece.

The Guardian won the Radio and Podcast category for ‘The mystery of Bangladesh’s missing children’. Elsewhere, the Photojournalism award went to Hugh Kinsella Cunningham for his visual exploration of the ongoing conflict in the DRC.

Usually reserved for a specific piece of journalism that has demonstrated impact in addressing human rights issues, Amnesty’s Outstanding Impact Award this year was dedicated to all the journalists who have lost their lives and continue to risk their lives to document the atrocities being committed in Gaza.

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:

“The events of this year serve as a potent reminder that journalists and media workers continue to be threatened, prosecuted and even killed for speaking truth to power. It is clear that nowhere is truly safe for a journalist speaking truth to power right now.

“However, amid the global threats to press freedom, tonight’s Media Awards winners and finalists have all proven that we will not be silenced. Their tireless efforts truly make an impact on the world, and if brave media workers continue to document, investigate, and share the stories of those who often have no voice, change will happen.”

Full list of winners

Broadcast News

• Sky News, Myanmar’s Hidden War

Judges: Ayshah Tull (Channel 4), John Ray (ITV News), Christina Marker (Sky News), Sana Safi (BBC), Kai Akram (Amnesty International UK).

Written News

• The Independent and Lighthouse Reports, Murdered, tortured or in hiding from the Taliban: The special forces abandoned by Britain

Judges: Alison Phillips (freelance), Megan Gibson (New Statesman), Catherine Philp (The Times), Patrick Strudwick (i News), Rachel Reilly (Amnesty International UK).

Photojournalism

• Hugh Kinsella Cunningham, Displaced by Congo’s endless cycle of war, The Guardian

Judges: Claire Thomas (freelance), Sara Rumens (The Times), Joanna Ruck (The Guardian), Mads Nissen (freelance), Johnny Goldsmith (The Mirror), Marie-Anne Ventoura (Amnesty International UK).

Radio and Podcasts

• The Guardian, The mystery of Bangladesh’s missing children

Judges: Anoosh Chakelian (New Statesman), Maz Ebtehaj (The Guardian), Karen Dalziel (BBC Radio 4), Al Riddell (Global), Sam Lawlor (Amnesty International UK).

The Gaby Rado Award for New Journalist

• Linda Ngari, Freelance journalist for BBC Africa

Judges: Tom Rado, Lindsay Taylor, Liz Cookman (freelance), Ghoncheh Habibiazad (BBC), Nick Springate (BBC), Kerry Moscogiuri (Amnesty International UK).

Nations and Regions

• BBC Northern Ireland, The Rise of Race Hate

Judges: Suzanne Breen (Belfast Telegraph), Jennifer McKiernan (BBC), David Dick (Daily Record), Sarah Lester (Manchester Evening News), Patrick Corrigan (Amnesty International UK).

Digital Creativity

• BBC Eye Investigations, Queer Egypt Under Attack

Judges: Sam Joiner (Financial Times), Joe Pickover (PA Media), Lydia McMullan (The Guardian), Anca Toader (BBC Media Action), Kirsty Jennings (Anagram), Neil Durkin (Amnesty International UK).

Written Feature

• Reuters, The Slaughter of El Geneina

Judges: Maya Oppenheim (The Independent), James Besanvalle (Metro), Sirin Kale (the Guardian), Anna Silverman (Grazia), Christina Lamb (The Sunday Times), Maggie Paterson (Amnesty International UK).

Broadcast Feature

• BBC Africa Eye / Panorama, Sex for Work: The True Cost of our Tea

Judges: Olga Loginova (freelance), Julie Etchingham (ITV News), Mark Austin (Sky News), Nevine Mabro (Channel 4), Joanna Lapping (BBC), Kai Akram (Amnesty International UK).

Outstanding Impact Award

Since the beginning of 2023, at least 120 journalists* across the world have lost their lives simply for carrying out their work. At least 94 of these were killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – the vast majority of those in Gaza. Despite the risk to their lives daily, Palestinian citizen journalists and professional media workers bravely continue to report from the region.

• The journalists of Gaza (accepted by Ahmed Alnaouq, a London-based journalist and author who comes from Gaza. He is the founder of We Are Not Numbers, a youth-led Palestinian nonprofit outlet in the Gaza Strip, and is also cofounder of Across the Wall, a media project that tells Palestinians’ stories from Gaza in Hebrew. He serves as advocacy and outreach officer for the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.)

*Figures from the Committee to Protect Journalists

Awarded by Amnesty International UK.

Photographs from the event can be viewed here: https://www.emilymudie.co.uk/amnestymediaawards2024winners