Amnesty International has today (16 March) revealed the Amnesty UK Media Awards 2021 finalists, a prestigious set of awards that have now been running for 29 years.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at a virtual event on Wednesday 28 April.

The 11 award categories celebrate excellence in human rights journalism over the past year and applaud the courage and determination of journalists and editors who sometimes put their lives on the line to report on vital human rights issues.

The judging panels were made up of high-profile UK journalists and Amnesty representatives.  

The Finalists:

Broadcast News

• BBC Africa Eye: Lagos Inferno: The Explosion that Rocked Nigeria
• Channel 4 News: Carers in Scotland denied death in service payment
• CNN International: Lekki Toll Gate Shooting Investigation
• Sky News: Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

Features

• CNN International: They were sent to a shelter for safety. Instead, these women say they were sexually abused
• Financial Times: Inside Thailand’s Youth Revolution
• CNN International: ‘Black Gold’ – How global demand for hair products is linked to forced labor in Xinjiang
• The Guardian: Fashion’s dirty secret: how sexual assault took hold in jeans factories

Regional Media

• BBC Radio Foyle: Special reports on domestic abuse
• WalesOnline: ‘I came to the UK on an inflatable dinghy bobbing around in the Channel for hours’
• The Times (Scotland): Hardeep Singh Kohli investigation: The survivors finally have their say
• BBC One Scotland: A Deadly Trade

Student Journalist

• Caitlin Kelly, City, University of London: When Sex Games Go Wrong
• Hanna Linnéa Mödder, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London: “I’m afraid of the disease but mostly of dying from hunger”
• Victor Jack, University of Cambridge:  I am an Uighur who faced China’s concentration camps. This is my story
• Nimra Shahid, City, University of London: Cummings recruit sacked after suggesting police use ‘live rounds’ on BLM protesters

Radio & Podcasts

• BBC Radio 4: From the Ashes of New Cross
• Prison Radio Association / Resonance FM / Radio Reverb / East Leeds FM: Prison Bag selection
• Podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify: The Bellingcat Podcast, Series 2
• BBC World Service: The Many Colours of Raqqa

Written News

• The Independent: How Israel is ‘bombing Gaza blind’ with old intelligence
• Middle East Eye: The Killing Fields of Tarhuna
• The Guardian: Croatian Police Brutality Against Crosses on our heads to ‘cure’ Covid-19: refugees report abuse by Croatian police
• The Telegraph: After the bombs they attacked with knives, claim Ethiopians fleeing peace prize winner’s war

Photojournalism

• Noriko Hayashi, Granta: Japanese Wives
• Robin Hammond, The Guardian: All we can offer is the chain
• Sam Tarling, The Times: Yemen’s children condemned to sickness and famine by war
• Smita Sharma, National Geographic Magazine: Stolen Lives

Best Use of Digital Media

• Al Jazeera Digital: Living in the Unknown
• Al Jazeera English Online / Al Jazeera Digital: Motherhood in Crisis
• The Guardian: Beirut blast: a night of horror, captured by its victims
• Al Jazeera English Online: The $5 Forests

The Gaby Rado Award for New Journalist

• Nader Ibrahim, BBC News Arabic: Libya’s Lethal ‘Game of Drones’
• Nicola Kelly, The Guardian: No Place To Call Home
• Nellie Peyton, Thomson Reuters Foundation / The New Humanitarian: Over 50 women accuse Ebola aid workers of sex abuse in Congo
• Venetia Menzies, The Times & The Sunday Times: One woman’s journey into modern slavery

Investigation

• ITV News: Gymnastics Abuse Scandal
• The Sunday Times: War Crimes Scandal
• Channel 4 Dispatches: Starbucks and Nespresso: The Truth About Your Coffee
• BBC News Arabic: The Schools that Chain Boys

Documentaries

• ITV Exposure: In Cold Blood
• BBC Two: Once Upon a Time in Iraq
• BBC 4: The Accused: Damned or Devoted?
• BBC Storyville: Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge