Amnesty Media Awards 2018 finalists announced

Amnesty International UK has today revealed the finalists for its Media Awards 2018, a prestigious set of awards that have now been running for 27 years.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at an event in central London on Wednesday 28 March, hosted by journalist and broadcaster Jeremy Paxman.

The 11 award categories celebrate excellence in human rights journalism over the past year, and applaud the courage and determination of journalists and editors who sometimes put their lives on the line to report on vital human rights issues.

This year’s awards were extremely competitive, with Amnesty receiving more than 275 entries across the categories. For the first time, the awards will include an Impact Award, chosen by Amnesty to recognise journalism that has helped bring about important human rights change.

Previous award winners include Marie Colvin, Christina Lamb, Sue Lloyd-Roberts, Robert Fisk and Mike Thomson, among many others.

Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK, said:

“Amnesty was itself launched because of a newspaper article, so we’re very aware of the vital role the media plays in exposing human rights abuses and helping to change things for the better.

“The best journalism has the ability to bring powerful images and stories straight into our living rooms, to hold leaders to account, and to inspire us to take action.

“At a time when countries like Turkey are silencing many of their journalists, there’s a pressing need to champion the important work of the free media.

“Our awards celebrate the creativity, the bravery and the skill of some of the world’s best human rights reporters.”

The Finalists:

Investigations

• BBC Arabic and BBC World Service, Weapons of Mass Surveillance
• Reuters, Duterte’s War
• BBC 2 Newsnight, The Massacre at Tula Toli

News

• The Guardian, Massacre at Tula Toli (Oliver Holmes)
• Sky News, Rohingya Exodus 
• The Guardian, Chechens tell of prison beating and electric shocks in anti-gay purge: ‘They called us animals’ (Shaun Walker)

Photojournalism

• Robin Hammond, The Observer/Guardian Online, People like us
• Tommy Trenchard, The Sunday Times, Exodus: The desperate flight of the Rohingya
• Claire Thomas, Sunday Times, Saving lives in Mosul's Old City

Innovation

• The Guardian, Bussed Out
• The Guardian, The Defenders Series
• Huffington Post, House Without Windows

Documentaries (radio and podcast)

• BBC Radio 4 ‘File on Four’, A Greek Tragedy
• BBC World Service, The Lost Children of ISIS
• BBC World Service, Sex Slaves of Al Shabab 

Features

• Gary Younge, The Guardian, The boy who killed and the mother who tried to stop him
• Anthony Loyd, The Times Magazine, Children of Islamic State
• Tracy McVeigh, The Observer/Guardian Online, ‘We give people their humanity back’ - Mental health in Croatia

Documentaries (television and film)

• ITV, The Forgotten Children
• BBC 4, Last Days of Solitary
• Sky 1, Ross Kemp: Libya’s migrant hell

Nations and regions

• BBC Scotland Investigations Unit, Humans for Sale
• TheDetail.TV, Mother and baby homes: the case for a public inquiry (Kathryn Torney)
• Hackney Gazette, The Hidden Homeless (Emma Youle)

Student

• Claisse Opulencia, Canterbury Christ University, The Vulnerability of Homeless Women
• Selena Randhawa, City University, ‘Our society is broken’: what can stop Canada’s First Nations suicide epidemic?
• Simisola Jolaoso, Goldsmiths, University of London, Forensic Nurses: Fighting Sex Crimes in South Africa

Gaby Rado Award (for best new journalist)

• Kieran Guilbert, Thomson Reuters Foundation  
• Nawal Al Maghafi, BBC
• Sally Hayden, Freelance

The nominations for the Impact Award are:

• Nawal Al Maghafi, BBC
• Reuters, Duterte’s War
• Callum Tulley, BBC Panorama, Undercover: Britain's Immigration Secrets