Amnesty International UK Media Awards 1998

The 7th annual Amnesty International UK Media Awards took place on 25 June at the Park Lane Hotel, London. The awards ceremony was hosted by Melvyn Bragg.

David Bull[1] said at the awards;

Despite 1998 being the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights there has been no shortage of important human rights abuse stories in the last year. High-profile issues such as the massacres in Algeria and the situation in Indonesia have received significant coverage but there have also been less well-publicised abuses that still cry out for international scrutiny.[2]

In total there were 7 awards, including the introduction of the Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat. The other award categories were National Print, Periodicals, Photojournalism, Radio, Television Documentary and Television News. For eligibility, the entries had to be published or transmitted between 16 April 1997 and 30 April 1998.[3][4]

The overall winner was Robert Fisk for a series of articles on Algeria published in The Independent.[2]

The Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat was made to Nosa Igiebor and the staff of Tell magazine, Nigeria.

The judges for all categories were Nicky Campbell, Mark Lattimer,[lower-alpha 1] Penny Smith, Polly Toynbee and Kirsty Young.

Shortlist and Awards 1998

1998
Category	Title	Organisation	Journalists	Refs
National Print
	'A Holy Betrayal'	The Guardian	Maggie O'Kane	[5]
	A series of articles on Algeria Overall Winner	The Independent	Robert Fisk	[6][7] [8][9] [10][11] [12][13] [14]
	'Face To Face with Bosnia's Doctor Death' & 'Net Finally Closes Around War Criminals'	The Observer	Ed Vulliamy	[15][16]
	'Surviving Algeria'	The Observer	John Sweeney	[17]
Periodicals
	'Afghanistan Diary: My Escape from the Taliban'	Marie Claire	Breshna Baktash
	'A Ghost of a Chance: A Survey of the Balkans'	The Economist	Brooke Unger	[18]
	"Tibet: Where Having Children is a Crime"	Marie Claire	Vittoria DAlessio	[19][20]
Photojournalism
	'Bosnian Refugee Returning Home'		Howard Davies	[21] [22]
	"Lord of the Flies - The Mental Landscape of War"		Stuart Freedman	[23]
	'The Unavenged'		Jenny Matthews
Radio
	Special Assignment: Algeria	BBC Radio 5	John Sweeney, produced by Vera Frankl and Anna Parkinson, edited by Gwyneth Williams
	'Face The Facts',	BBC Radio 4	John Waite, produced by Susan Mitchell, edited by Graham Ellis
	"Escape from Chechnya"	Series, "Out of the Fire" BBC Radio South	Marc Jobst John Simpson
Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat
	Presented to Nosa Igiebor and the staff of Tell Magazine. Launched in 1991, Tell reports on economic and political events and the struggle for democracy and human rights in Nigeria. Tell has continued to publish throughout the period of Nigerian dictatorship despite intimidation, harassment and the detention without charge or trial of Mr Igiebor and other senior members of the Tell staff.			[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]
Television Documentary
	'Getting Away with Murder'	Correspondent Special BBC TV	Michael Ignatieff, Fiona Murch, Giselle Portenier	[34][35] [36]
	'Making a Killing' & 'Profit Before Principle'	Granada Television: World In Action	Martyn Gregory Films	[37][38]
	"The Grave"	Channel 4 Television: True Stories	Produced by Soul Purpose Productions	[39]
Television News
	report on Algeria	BBC TV News	Fergal Keane	[40][41]
	reports on Muslim refugees in Bosnia	BBC TV News	David Loyn
	Report on the Xinjiang province in China	Direct TV for ITN Channel Four News	Gaby Rado	[42][43]

See also

Notes

1. At the time of the 1998 Awards, Mark Lattimer was Communications Director for Amnesty International UK

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 16 December 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. "Press Releases | Amnesty International UK". Archived from the original on 19 December 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
3. "1 APRIL 1998 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SEEKS PRESS AWARD NOMINATIONS" (Press release). Amensty International UK (AIUK). 1 April 1998. Archived from the original on 1 December 1998. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
4. "AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SEEKS PRESS AWARD NOMINATIONS - 01 April 1998". Archived from the original on 1 December 1998. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
5. O'Kane, Maggie (29 November 1997). "A Holy Betrayal". The Guardian Weekend. pp. 28–45.
6. Crawshaw, Steve (19 November 1997). "Middle East: Amnesty's Algeria report hits at security services". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2013. Amnesty International yesterday accused the international community of an "abdication of responsibility" towards the Algerian people. .... In response to reports by Robert Fisk in the Independent (based partly on the testimony of former Algerian policemen, speaking out for the first time), the Algerian ambassador to London wrote this month to complain of "limited sources of information" and insufficient "corroborating evidence" for the first-hand accounts.
7. Fisk, Robert (30 August 1997). "Hundreds die in Algerian slaughter". The Independent. Algeria. p. 9. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. The slaughter of perhaps another 400 villagers in 24 hours puts the Algerian war on a Bosnian scale - but nothing, it seems, can match Algeria for animal savagery. The disembowelling of young women, the throat- slashing of babies, the mutilation of old men and women, the abduction into forced marriage of hundreds of young girls - all supposedly done in the name of Islam prompts an obvious question: can the Algerian war plumb further depths of horror?
8. Fisk, Robert (22 October 1997). "Algeria, this autumn: a people in agony". The Independent. Algeria. p. 1.
9. Fisk, Robert (23 October 1997). "Stench of death in Algeria's perfumed killing fields". The Independent. Algeria. p. 16.
10. Fisk, Robert (26 October 1997). "Brutal killers without faces". The Independent. Algeria. p. 1.
11. Fisk, Robert (30 October 1997). "Algeria's Terror: Witness from the front line of a police force bent on brutality". The Independent. Algeria. p. 9.
12. Fisk, Robert (1 November 1997). "Algeria's Horror: Nightmares of torture haunt exiled witness". The Independent. Algeria. p. 17.
13. Fisk, Robert (3 November 1997). "Conscript tells of Algeria's torture chambers". The Independent. p. 10.
14. Fisk, Robert (6 November 1997). "The case for intervention: No, Algeria, it's not an "internal affair"". The Independent. Algeria. p. 2.
15. Vulliamy, Ed (13 July 1997). "Face To Face with Bosnia's Doctor Death". The Observer.
16. Vulliamy, Ed (17 August 1997). "Net Finally Closes". The Observer. pp. 14–15.
17. Sweeney, John (29 June 1997). "Surviving Algeria". The Observer. Archived from the original on 24 February 2007.
18. Unger, Brooke (January 1998). "A ghost of a chance : a survey of the Balkans". The Economist. 346: 24. ISSN 0013-0613.
19. D'Alessio, Vittoria (November 1997). "Where having children is a crime". Marie Claire: 19–26. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
20. "Publications Amnesty International Press Award awardA highlight of my career has been winning an Amnesty International Award". Vittoria D'Alessio. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
21. Davis, Howard (1996). "Bosnian Muslim refugee returning home with EDA having spent four years in the UK". Howard Davies Photo Library. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
22. "HOWARD DAVIES BIOGRAPHY". Howard Davies Photography. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
23. Freedman, Stuart. "Africa - The Lord of the Flies - Stuart Freedman - Photographer - Archive". Stuart Freedman - Photographer - Archive. Archived from the original on 12 January 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
24. Amnesty International (10 January 1996). "AFR 44/01/96 Document - Nigeria: incommunicado detention / health concern: Nosa Igiebor". Amnesty International.
25. Jonathan Power (17 May 2001). Like Water on Stone: The Story of Amnesty International. UPNE. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-55553-487-5.
26. Stefan Heuser (31 December 2007). Political Practices and International Order: Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Societas Ethica, Oxford 2006. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 163. ISBN 978-3-8258-0920-1.
27. Ayo Olukotun (2004). Repressive State and Resurgent Media Under Nigeria's Military Dictatorship, 1988-98. Nordic Africa Institute. p. 81. ISBN 978-91-7106-524-7.
28. "WRITENET, Nigeria: On the Brink of Civil War?, 1 February 1996". WRITENET. 1 February 1996. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
29. Keir Starmer; Theodora A. Christou (1 May 2005). Human Rights Manual and Sourcebook for Africa. BIICL. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-0-903067-84-3. The Return of Tyranny: Abacha Bares His Fangs
30. "Nigerian Journal Seized". The New York Times. AP. 25 December 1995. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015.
31. Drogin, Bob (24 November 1995). "Pen and Ink, Cloak and Dagger Are Tools of Trade for Nigeria Journalists; Africa: Reporters and editors--facing press ban, detention, prison--use spy techniques to continue voicing opposition to harsh regime of Gen. Sani Abacha". Los Angeles Times. p. 12.
32. "Attacks on the Press in 1995 A Worldwide Survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists - Nigeria: Special Report "The Retreat of Nigeria's Press: Tactical Withdrawal or Temporary Defeat?"". Committee to Protect Journalists. March 1996. Archived from the original on 19 March 2001. Retrieved 18 January 2013. The Nigerian news media--especially privately owned presses--have also been subject to the government's pull. Atop the pile, for now, sits Gen. Abacha, buoyed by the two million barrels of oil produced daily.
33. "CPJ Launches 1996 Campaign, "Nigeria: The Press Under Siege" U.S. Press Freedom Group Condemns Attacks on Nigerian Independent Press" (Press release). Committee to Protect Journalists. 18 March 1996. Archived from the original on 18 January 2013.
34. Giselle Portenier (Producer), Fiona Murch (Programme Editor), Michael Ignatieff (Presenter) (1 November 1997). "Getting Away with Murder". Correspondent. BBC. Archived from the original on 1 May 2015. Current affairs. Five years after apartheid was officially announced, South Africa is still haunted by the spectre of its past. President Mandela's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in 1995 to expose the former regime's murkier secrets. Michael Ignatieff talks to those involved in the struggle for justice.
35. "About Correspondent". BBC Online - BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on 15 October 2002. Revealing the human stories behind issues shaping our contemporary world, Correspondent is the BBC's flagship weekly international current affairs programme
36. Brandon Hamber & Richard A. Wilson (2002). "Symbolic closure through memory, reparation and revenge in post-conflict societies". Journal of Human Rights. 1 (1): 35–53. doi:10.1080/14754830110111553. 'The release of Mandela to me was the loss of my son because he should have come back with others…that hope that everybody is coming back home, the other people got happy about that, but to us it was the moment of tears because our son never came back.' Joyce Mtimkulu, Interview with Michael Ignatieff, "Getting Away with Murder", Special Correspondent Programme, BBC2. Joyce Mtimkulu is the mother of Siphiwo, who went missing in South Africa a decade and a half ago.
37. Martyn Gregory (Producer), Steve Boulton (Editor) (2 June 1997). "Making a Killing - First of two-part report into trade with Indonesia. See also Profit Before Principle", 9 July 1997.". World in Action. Martyn Gregory Films. Granada Television ITV. Archived from the original on 12 November 2007. Documentary revealing the extent to which British business supplies the Indonesian regime, accused of torture and genocide, with training equipment and arms. Contributions from Pierre Sané (Gen. Sec. Amnesty International), Major Gen. Prabowo Subianto (Kopassus, Commander in Chief), Alfredo Rodriguez (EastTimor Resistance), José Romos-Horta (1996 Nobel Laureate), Angie Zelter (Campaign Against the Arms Trade), Dr Peter Carey (University of Oxford) and Budiman Sudjatmiko (prisoner of conscience),
38. Martyn Gregory (Producer), Steve Boulton (Editor) (9 June 1997). "Profit Before Principle - Concluding programme in the two-part investigation into trade with Indonesia. See also "Making a Killing", 2 June 1997.". World in Action. Martyn Gregory Films. Granada Television ITV. Archived from the original on 26 October 2008. Documentary concluding the two-part investigation into Britain's commercial links with the Indonesian government, despite international concern about human rights abuses.
39. Belinda Giles (Director & Producer), Peter Moore (Commissioning Editor) (1 July 1997). "The Grave". True Stories. Soul Purpose Productions. Channel 4. Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Channel 4's entry for the Prix Italia is a documentary following the work of the forensic archaeologists in Vukovar, Croatia, led by anthropologist Bill Haglund. When the town was overrun by the Yugoslav army in 1991 the hospital was given the order to evacuate. The male patients and staff were separated from the women and children and were never seen by their families again. With the discovery of a mass grave at Vukovar, the forensic team's task was to ascertain whether the bodies were those from the hospital and to identify the individuals with only personal effects and decomposing clothing to work with. The film offers an insight into the minds of the war criminals who carried out the executions as well as examining the hopes and fears of the relatives who wait to hear the horrible truth.
40. Keane, Fergal (13 March 1998). "Despatches Algeria - a nation growing in fear". BBC Online. Algeria. BBC. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Transcription from original video footage
41. Fergal Keane (13 March 1998). Despatches Algeria - a nation growing in fear - Feargal Keane's report from Algiers (Video - .ram RealVideo). Algeria: BBC online - BBC. Archived from the original on 2 February 1999. Full Transcription of audio made by BBC and available at WebCite-6Dn9JgHdd
42. "CHINA: CRACKDOWN ON INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT". ITN Source Ref:T28109716. ITN Channel 4. 28 October 1997. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2013. C4N has obtained exclusive evidence of what Beijing itself calls a 'pitiless crackdown' on a nascent independence movement in the mainly muslim province of Xinjiang.
43. Rado, Gaby (28 October 1997). "CHINA: CRACKDOWN ON INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT: 28 October 1997 Ref: T28109716 Segment Synopisis and TX". China, Xinjiang Province. Channel 4 ITN Direct TV. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2013. CHINA: Eastern Turkestan: Xinjiang: Two camels standing grazing - TRACK FORWARDS past tents - People to & fro in market - LA MS Mosque - MS Young woman sitting with child on her lap - Rider on horseback along TLS Police standing by minibus outside building LMS Soldier on duty in traffic

External links

• Amnesty International UK (AIUK) website
• Amnesty International UK Media Awards at the AIUK Website
• Amnesty International Website