Scotland: Amnesty celebrates the Scottish media's contribution to human rights
A BBC documentary of the ‘Glasgow Girls’ wins Amnesty International Scottish Media Award . Amnesty’s Scottish Media Award announced yesterday (31 May,) recognises excellence in human rights journalism that has made a significant contribution to the Scottish public’s greater awareness and understanding of human rights issues.
The award was presented at an awards ceremony at the Scottish Parliament by Patrick Harvie, MSP, Convenor of the Cross-Party Group on Human Rights.
Amnesty International’s Programme Director, Scotland, Rosemary Burnett said:
“We have received an unprecedented number of entries from Scottish journalists this year and have been pleasantly surprised by the quality and output of human rights journalism in Scotland.
“This year’s Media Award entries highlight the fact that human rights abuses can happen in Scotland as well as other places around the world. The Glasgow Girls film painfully demonstrates the effects of Government policy on the lives of asylum seekers in the UK.”
Green MSP Patrick Harvie, said:
"I'm delighted to host the Amnesty Scottish Media Awards once again at Holyrood. Politicians often complain about the media, but we rarely praise them when their work is of a high standard. If we're to create a positive human rights culture, we need journalists and film-makers who are committed to telling the stories of people's struggle to claim their human rights.
BBC Scotland's Tales from the Edge, which gave the Glasgow Girls the chance to be heard in their own words, is a worthy winner."
The Scottish Media Award was awarded to Lindsay Hill for her documentary Tales from the Edge shown on BBC2 on 31 August 2005. The film is a video diary of 4 asylum seeking teenagers in Scotland as their story takes a dramatic twist when one of them is faced with extradition.
The Runner-up awards went to Neil MacKay for his article Torture Flights – the Inside Story, published in the Sunday Herald, Susan Swarbrick for her article Children's rights of the Revolution published in the Herald Magazine, and Lucy Bannerman for Night Terror – The child soldiers of Uganda published in the Herald Magazine.