Amnesty International has announced that the winner of the 2009 Scottish Prize in their annual Media Awards is Lucy Adams, writing in The Herald Magazine for her piece "The Fight for Justice", published Saturday 13th September 2008. Lucy Adams also won the Award in 2007.

The winning piece looked at the use of rape as a weapon of war in conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, examining the impact on the lives of Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights and their communities and the coping mechanisms which have been developed.

The judging panel described “The Fight for Justice” as:

‘An extraordinary piece of journalism … One of the best arguments I have read in a long long time … Just brilliant from start to finish terrific, compelling.’

The Runner-Up for the Scottish Prize was the team from BBC Scotland’s Eòrpa Gaelic language programme (Hedda MacLeod, Catriona MacKinnon, Colin MacLeod, Annie Cheape, Iain Macinnes, Darren Laing, Alasdair Fraser) for a programme of three short films looking at immigration issues in Europe.

Comments from the judging panel included:

‘All three stories were excellent …. It was brilliant to see this level of investment ….. Terrific. They really put me on a journey’

The Amnesty International UK Media Awards recognise excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledge journalism's significant contribution to the UK public's awareness and understanding of human rights issues. To reflect the distinct nature of the Scottish media, Amnesty International's Scottish office organises a Scottish Prize as a precursor to the UK Media Awards ceremony in London (which will take place on 2nd June). Scottish entries into the Nations and Regions category of the UK Media Awards are automatically entered for the Scottish Prize.

The Nations and Regions Judging Panel, who decided the winner of the Scottish Prize, were Patrick Corrigan, William Crawley, Jenifer Johnston, Tomos Livingstone, Jon Manel.

Since its inception in 2004 the previous winners of the Scottish Prize have been:

2008 “Congo to Motherwell”, BBC Scotland (television) - Fiona Walker, Dorothy Parker, Matt Pinder, Hilary McCusker-Thompson

2007 “Haunted” by Lucy Adams for the Herald Magazine.

2006 “Tales From the Edge: The Glasgow Girls” BBC Scotland by
Lindsay Hill

2005 “Fascism in Russia”, by Billy Briggs, for the The Herald Magazine on Saturday

2004 Series on refugees and asylum seekers, by Alexander Robertson, Sam Bartlett and Liam McDougall for The Big Issue in Scotland

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact John Watson 0131 313 7012 07818 453 070 john.watson@amnesty.org.uk