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Amnesty International Media Awards 2003: Shortlist announced - Charles Wheeler to host

The winners will be announced at an evening awards ceremony at BAFTA, London, on Thursday 22 May 2003, to be hosted by journalist and broadcaster Charles Wheeler.

The Amnesty International UK Media Awards, sponsored by Pci: Live, recognise excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledge the significant contribution made to the UK public's awareness and understanding of human rights issues.

Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Stephen Bowen said:

'At a time when the world's attention has been focused on Iraq, there is a grave danger that human rights abuses elsewhere will get overlooked. The range and quality of the shortlist reminds us of the critical role journalists can play in drawing attention to events in Israel, Zimbabwe, Guinea and the Former Yugoslavia Republic for example.' The shortlisted entries are:

National Newspapers

  • No place like home; Promises, promises; The asylum lottery, Ann Treneman, The Times
  • This woman lost everything in a US air raid. A year on, she is still living amid the rubble; Dawn raids stoke fires of resentment, Rory McCarthy, The Guardian
  • Inside the world of the Palestinian suicide bomber; The informer who could not escape; On patrol with the killer Israel dreads, Hala Jaber, The Sunday Times

Judges: Will Self (writer, journalist and broadcaster), Martha Kearney (broadcaster and journalist), David Aaronovitch (writer, journalist and broadcaster), George Alagiah (broadcaster and journalist), Madeleine Bunting (journalist), Maggie Paterson (Head of Publishing, Amnesty International) Television News

  • Guinea: Sex for food, Sorious Samura, Insight News TV for Channel 4 News
  • Jenin, Lindsey Hilsum for ITN - Channel 4 News
  • Peru, forced sterilisations, Juliana Ruhfus, Insight News TV for Channel 4 News

Judges: Geeta Guru-Murthy (BBC News correspondent), Kate Sanderson (presenter and reporter), Joan Bakewell (writer, broadcaster and columnist), Moira Stuart (broadcaster), Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (journalist, writer and broadcaster), Lesley Warner (Head of Press, Amnesty International)

Photojournalism

  • Three Gorges Dam, Ian Berry, Magnum, Telegraph Magazine
  • Modern Day Slaves, Alex Smailes, Colors magazine
  • Looking Aids in the Face, Gideon Mendel, Corbis, Guardian Weekend

Judges: Colin Jacobson (photo editor and lecturer), Mary McCartney Donald (photographer), Mark Sealy (Director of Autograph), Neil Burgess (Director, NB Pictures), Chris Boot (publisher), Maggie Paterson (Head of Publishing, Amnesty International) Radio

  • Zimbabwe, Grant Ferrett, for File on 4, BBC Radio 4
  • Sale of illegal landmines, Andrew Gilligan, for Today, BBC Radio 4
  • Bosnia, Ian Muir-Cochrane, for File on 4, BBC Radio 4

Judges: Krishnan Guru-Murthy (broadcaster and presenter of Channel 4 News), Andy Kershaw (journalist, broadcaster and DJ), Nick Clarke (writer and broadcaster), Fi Glover (broadcaster), John Peel (broadcaster), Lesley Warner (Head of Press, Amnesty International) Periodicals

  • Land of the damned, Ann McFerran, The Sunday Times Magazine
  • Middle East mutineers, Philip Jacobson, The Sunday Times Magazine
  • We've been here before, Anne Karpf, Guardian Weekend

Judges: Jeremy Harding (writer and journalist), Francesca Klug (Senior Research Fellow, LSE), Richard Holloway (columnist, author and former Bishop of Edinburgh), Richard Bunting (Media Consultant) Will Hutton (Chief Executive, The Work Foundation), Maggie Paterson (Head of Publishing, Amnesty International)

Television Documentaries

  • A licence to murder, BBC Panorama (John Ware, reporter; Eamon Hardy, producer director; Mike Robinson, editor)
  • The fall of Milosevic, Brook Lapping Productions for the BBC (Dai Richards, producer & director; Norma Percy, producer)
  • Palestine is still the issue, Carlton Television for ITV1 (John Pilger, presenter, reporter, writer; Christopher Martin, producer; Tony Stark, director)
  • State of terror, Mentorn Barraclough Carey for Dispatches, Channel 4 (Deborah Davies, reporter; Eamonn Matthews, executive producer; Stephen Finnigan, producer/director)

    • Judges: Sheena McDonald (broadcaster and journalist), David Hare (playwright), Belinda Giles (film maker), Susan Richards (Managing Editor, openDemocracy), Paul Hamann (Creative Director, factual, Shine), Lesley Warner (Head of Press, Amnesty International)

    Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales

  • Northern Ireland: People for sale, Spotlight, BBC Northern Ireland (Andrew Martin, producer; Declan Lawn, Reporter)


    • Judges: Ciaran McKeown (Senior Director, Ulster Television), Malachi O'Doherty, (Editor, Fortnight magazine), Paddy Sloan, (Chief Executive, NI Human Rights Commission), Patrick Corrigan, (Programme Director, Northern Ireland, Amnesty International)

  • Scotland: Series of articles on refugees and asylum seekers, Alexander Robertson, Sam Bartlett and Liam McDougall, The Big Issue in Scotland


    • Judges: Joyce McMillan (writer and theatre critic), Magnus Linklater (writer and broadcaster), Bashir Maan (councillor and race equality campaigner), Rosemary Burnett (Programme Director, Scotland, Amnesty International)

  • Wales: The forgotten holocaust; The real wild west; War and peacekeepers, Jack Hanauer, The Big Issue Cymru


    • Judges: Professor Terry Threadgold (Professor in journalism at Cardiff University School of Journalism), Stephen Thomas (Director of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs), Sue West (Director, Big Issue Cymru), Eleanor White, (Programme Director, Wales, Amnesty International)

    The winners of two international awards will also be announced on 22 May:

    • The Global Award for Human Rights Journalism which recognises excellence in human rights journalism in the written media anywhere in the world
    • The Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat, made every year to a journalist from anywhere in the world who is putting themselves at risk by reporting on the human rights situation in their own country

    For further information on the awards, please contact: Annabel Harris, Media Awards Co-ordinator, Amnesty International UK, Tel: 020 7814 6278 annabel.harris@amnesty.org.uk

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