Amnesty International today (4 June) announced the shortlists for its prestigious annual Media Awards, which recognise excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledge journalism’s significant contribution to the UK public’s awareness and understanding of human rights issues.

The winners of the 16th annual Amnesty International UK Media Awards, sponsored by PCI:Fitch, will be announced at a ceremony at the Café Royal, London, on Wednesday 4 July, hosted by Kate Adie.

Shortlists are announced in eight categories. The ninth is an international award - the Amnesty International Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat – and the winner will be announced on the night.

Shortlists

Gaby Rado Memorial Award (for a journalist covering human rights for less than five years)

• Tea and Kidnapping, You go a bit crazy when you see little body after little body coming up out of the ground, The Jihad now is against the Shias not the Americans, The Guardian - Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
• Reports (Return to Kashmir, Coming to America, Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights of Orissa vs. the mines), More 4 News/ ITN - Phil Co
• Dark lives of the tunnel Children's rights, £3 a day “serfs” die for Dubai’s dream, Revealed: Bulgaria’s baby traders, The Sunday Times - Nicola Smith

Judges: Henry Bonsu, Andrew MacDonald, Maggie Paterson, Desa Rado, Joan Smith, Jon Snow


Nations and Regions

• Haunted, The Herald Magazine - Lucy Adams
• Tales from the Edge: The Children's rights Who Disappear, BBC Scotland – Lindsay Hill, Jude Suggett, Simon Parsons
• Secret files reveal Downing Street's 30-year cover up of state link to murder,The Irish News - Steven McCaffery

Judges : Patrick Corrigan, Robert Delamere, Husain Husaini, Shereen Nanjiani, Mike Steele, Harriet Sherwood

National newspapers

• Reunited: boys saved from slavers, The Sunday Times - Marie Colvin
• Congo’s Tragedy, The Independent - Johann Hari
• Horror Show Reveals Iraq’s Descent, The Sunday Times- Hala Jaber

Judges: David Barrett, Mike Blakemore, Adrian Goldberg, Naresh Puri, Mike Smith, Hamant Verma


Periodicals

• £…Per Incident, London Review of Books - Melanie McFadyean
• Island of Lost Souls, Observer Magazine - Chloe Hooper
• The Big Steal, Guardian Weekend Magazine - Jonathan Watts

Judges: Anton Antonowicz, Andrew Gilligan, Bronwen Maddox, Marie O’Riordan, Maggie Paterson, Kim Sengupta


Photojournalism

• Deluged by Strife, Telegraph Magazine - Marcus Bleasdale
• Kingsley's Crossing, The Guardian Weekend Magazine – Olivier Jobard
• Acid attacks in Bangladesh, Foto 8 Magazine - Andrew Testa

Judges: Jake Gavin, Shem Law, Jon Levy, Maggie Paterson, Charlotte Schmidt, Roger Tooth


Radio

• Cheaper than the Ground, the story of the Andijan killings, BBC World Service – Katie Dahlstrom, Monica Whitlock, BBC Tashkent Bureau
• Dispatches from Gaza, BBC News – Alan Johnston, BBC Gaza Bureau
• Letters from Guantanamo, BBC Radio 4 / Whistledown Productions – Kate Taylor, Gavin Esler, David Prest

Judges: Mike Blakemore, Saffron Burrows, Simon Cadman, Shelagh Fogarty, Jon Manel


Television documentary and docudrama

• Execution of a Teenage Girl, BBC / Wild Pictures – Paul Hamann, Monica Garnsey, Lucy Hetherington
• Baghdad: A Doctor’s Story, Guardian Films / BBC This World – Ben Summers, Karen O’Connor, Maggie O’Kane, Scott McEwin
• The Morecambe Bay Cockling Tragedy, ITV Granada – Ellaine Willcox, Simon Casson, Tim Canning, Richard Frediani

Judges: Mike Blakemore, Sophie Chalk, Roly Keating, Tim Singleton, Moira Stuart, Lindsay Taylor


Television news

• Babies for Sale: Romania, ITV News / ITN – Chris Rogers, Tony Hemmings
• Coming to Britain: Refugee Resettlement, Channel 4 News/ITN – Simon Israel, Jane Kinney
• China Organ Transplants, BBC Ten O’Clock News – Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, Bessie Du, Al Go

Judges: Mark Austin, Mike Blakemore, John Kampfner, Melanie McFadyean, Darshna Soni

• Find out more about the 2007 Amnesty International Media Awards