Prestigious Amnesty Media Awards 2020 winners announced

5 Live, The Impartial Reporter and BBC World Service also awarded top spots

Entry for the 2021 awards now open

‘These awards recognise truly outstanding journalism which has shone a spotlight on the world’s darkest corners’ – Kate Allen

The winners of Amnesty International UK’s prestigious Amnesty Media Awards 2020 have been announced this evening.

The acclaimed Syria documentary For Sama added to its growing list of accolades, winning the award for best documentary, while Hardcash Productions for ITV Exposure won best investigation with its Inside China’s Digital Gulag programme.

The Daily Mirror, BBC Radio 5 Live, The Sunday Telegraph and BBC News Arabic Documentaries also achieved top spots in the awards.

In an online ceremony held earlier this evening, the Amnesty Media Awards 2020 were presented by a number of high profile journalists who were judges involved in this year’s awards, including BBC News’s Tina Daheley, Channel 4 Unreported World presenter Seyi Rhodes, VICE UK’s Zing Tsjeng and BBC News’s Clive Myrie.

Viewers of the ceremony were encouraged to support an Amnesty campaign calling for the release of Khaled Drareni, an Algerian journalist sentenced to two years in prison last month for reporting on an anti-government protest.

Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK, said:

“These awards recognise truly outstanding journalism which has shone a spotlight on the world’s darkest corners - from the crisis in Yemen to the plight of Uyghur Muslims in China.

“In a world of misinformation and conspiracy theory, we need thorough, fact-based human rights reporting now more than ever.

“We pay tribute to the inspiring bravery and dedication of journalists who’ve uncovered wrongdoing, held those in authority to account, and helped create a fairer, more open world.”

The Amnesty Media Awards 2020 winners:

News (Broadcast)

• BBC News Arabic Documentaries - Idlib ‘double tap’ airstrike Russia says never was 

Judges:  Judges: Catrin Nye (BBC), Simon Israel (Channel 4 News), Deborah Haynes (Sky News), Tina Daheley (BBC), Cora Bauer (Amnesty International).

Features

• The Sunday Telegraph - Yazidi Women Forced to Abandon their Babies to Isil, by Josie Ensor

Judges: Will Dean (Guardian Weekly), Andrea Thompson (Marie Claire), Jessica Winch (The Telegraph), Corinne Redfern (The Fuller Project), Ella Berny (Amnesty international).

Radio and Podcasts

• BBC Radio 5 Live - Modern Slavery: Sanu’s Story

Judges: Felicity Finch (radio actor and journalist), Nick Rotherham (BBC Radio 1), Sam Lawlor (Amnesty International).

Student Journalist

• Kenneth Sanchez, University of Kent - Escaping the Chaos: Venezuelans in Peru

Judges: Tina Moran (Press Association), Kirstie O’Mahony (BBC), Jess Austin (Metro.co.uk), Claisse Opulencia (Amnesty Media Awards Student Journalist 2019 winner), Niall Couper (Amnesty International).

Gaby Rado award for New Journalist

• Bethan McKernan - The Guardian

Judges: Tom Rado, Megha Mohan (BBC), Joe Wallen (The Telegraph), Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff (gal-dem), Paul Waugh (HuffPost UK), Ella Berny (Amnesty International).

Investigation

• Hardcash Productions for ITV Exposure – Undercover: Inside China's Digital Gulag

Judges: Cait FitzSimons (5 News), Liliane Landor (Channel 4 News), Clive Myrie (BBC), Meirion Jones (Bureau of Investigative Journalism), Amelia Gentleman (The Guardian), Neil Durkin (Amnesty International).

Regional Media

• The Impartial Reporter - Fermanagh Historical Sexual Abuse, by Rodney Edwards

Judges: Amna Saleem (screenwriter and journalist), James Stewart (BBC), Trevor Birney (Five Point Films), Emma Youle (HuffPost UK), Toby Granville (Newsquest), Pauline Kelly (Amnesty International).

Photojournalism

• Tariq Zaidi (The Guardian) - El Salvador: A country ruled by gangs

Judges: Martin Keene (PA Media), Mark Sealy MBE (Autograph ABP), Claire Thomas (freelance photographer), Ray Wells (The Sunday Times), Marina Vitaglione (Panos Picture), Richard Burton (Amnesty International).

Digital Innovation

• BBC World Service - El Helicoide: From shopping mall to torture prison

Judges: Shehani Fernando (producer/director), Sam Joiner (The Times), Mark Alford (Sky Sports News), Zing Tsjeng (VICE UK), Carmen Barlow (Amnesty International).

News (Written Word)

• The Daily Mirror – Daily Mirror in Yemen, by Andy Lines

Judges: Eleanor McDowall (Falling Tree Productions), Dan Hyde (Mail on Sunday), Emily Retter (The Daily Mirror), Gary Younge (University of Manchester), Laurie Hanna (Amnesty International).

Documentaries

• For Sama - A Channel 4 News & ITN Productions Film for Channel 4 & FRONTLINE PBS

Judges: Seyi Rhodes (Channel 4 Unreported World & Dispatches), Emma Westcott (Factual, Channel 5), Tracey Doran-Carter (Clover Films), Sarah Waldron (BBC Current Affairs), Tom Giles (ITV), Neil Durkin (Amnesty International).  

The full list of Media Awards 2020 finalists can be found here.  

Enter the Amnesty Media Awards 2021

You can enter next year’s awards now by visiting the Amnesty Media Awards website: https://amnesty-media-awards.org.uk/

ENDS

Media contact information:

Ella Berny – ella.berny@amnesty.org.uk

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