Amnesty International has today unveiled the shortlist for its prestigious annual Media Awards. 

The ten categories included in the 2015 Amnesty Media Awards cover print, broadcast, photo, and online journalism. There is also a special award for new journalists who have been reporting 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 24th 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 Barbican in central London on Thursday 26th November.

This year’s Awards were extremely competitive and Amnesty received well over 200 entries across the ten categories; the documentary and feature categories each attracted over 40 entries.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

“This year’s news agenda has been dominated by issues that hammer home the suffering that human rights abuses cause. Stories about conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and the consequent refugee crisis in Europe have filled our screens, airwaves and newspapers throughout 2015. This year’s entries also shine a light on lesser known stories from across the globe including human trafficking, police killings and discrimination.

“The pivotal role of the UK media industry in informing and shaping public opinion is something that Amnesty recognises and values. It is this vital, and often dangerous, work that we pay tribute to through our annual Media Awards.”    

The Shortlist

TV News

• Libyan Smugglers (Quentin Sommerville, BBC News)
• Inside Yarl’s Wood: Britain’s most notorious detention centre (Jackie Long, Channel 4 News)
• Tracking down Macedonia’s migrant kidnap gang (Ramita Navai, Channel 4 News)

Judges: Federico Escher, John Angier, Bridget Kendall, Anna Jones

Digital

• Schooled in Britain, deported to danger: UK sends 600 former child asylum seekers back to Afghanistan (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
• Syrian Journey (BBC World Service)
• The Counted (The Guardian)

Judges: Siraj Datoo, Kevin Sutcliffe, Jacqueline Housden, Ian Dunt

Features

• The boys who could see England (Anders Fjellberg & Tomm W. Christiansen, Dagbladet/New Statesman)
• I carried his name on my body for nine years (Annie Kelly, Observer Magazine)
• The Hidden and the Hunted (Jonathan Heaf, GQ Magazine)

Judges: David Jones, Andrea Thompson, Gary Younge, Tom Parry

Photojournalism

• Kai Wiedenhofer: The Forgotten Casualties
• Tommy Trenchard: Ebola in West Africa
• Aaron Huey:'Mitakuye Oyasin'

Judges: Tabish Khan, Shannon Jensen, Tomasina Brittain, Mark Townsend

National Newspapers

• I'm afraid of the sea but I'll do anything to get out (Christina Lamb, Sunday Times)
• Revealed: how the world turned its back on rape victims of Congo (Mark Townsend, The Observer)
• Tragedy in Gaza (Kim Sengupta, The Independent)

Judges: David Wastell, Robert Yates, Sarah Sands, Hannah Strange

Radio

• Red River Women (BBC Radio Current Affairs for BBC World Service)
• Surviving The Most Lethal Route In The World (BBC World Service)
• Saving Gaza’s Grand Piano (BBC World Service)

Judges: Anna Doble, Paul Moss, Dotun Adebayo, Steve Bloomfield, Steve Wilson-Beales

Nations & Regions

• Poison blood killed my son (Emma Youle, Archant Newspapers)
• DR Congo: The Children Who Don't Exist (Paul O'Hare, Daily Record)
• A Woman Alone with the IRA (Spotlight, BBC Northern Ireland)

Judges: Nina Hossain, Yvette Shapiro, Beverley Rouse

Gaby Rado

• Rob Hastings, The Independent
• Gabriella Jozwiak, Freelance
• Maeve McClenaghan, Freelance

Judges: Mike Thomson, Rob Hodge, Tom Rado, Naga Munchetty

Documentaries

• Nigeria's hidden war (Dispatches, Channel 4)
• 3 ½ Minutes (Marc Silver)
• Escape from ISIS (Dispatches, Channel 4)

Judges: Naresh Puri, Eamonn Matthews, Fiona Lloyd-Davies, Rizwana Hamid, Louise Orton

Student

• Falling off the Map: Migrants in the UK, Radhika Bhatnagar, Migrants Forum (special series on Refugees by students from City University)
• Child prostitution in Zarqa, Jonathan Lawrence, Cherwell, Oxford University
• If they see you they shoot  Alexander Walker, The ISIS, Oxford University