Shortlist for Amnesty's Media Awards 2016 announced

Amnesty International has today unveiled the shortlist for its prestigious annual Media Awards, now in its 25th year.

The ten categories included in the 2016 Amnesty Media Awards celebrate the best human rights reporting across all genres - broadcast, multimedia, print and photography (see the full set of shortlists below).

Other awards include The Gaby Rado Award for Best New Journalist (courtesy of SOAS, University of London), and a Student Award for those even newer to journalism. 

Amnesty’s 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. The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at an event in central London on Tuesday 29 November.

This year’s awards were extremely competitive and Amnesty received well over 200 entries across the ten categories, with the documentary and feature categories each receiving over 40 entries.

Past award winners include Mike Thomson, Marie Colvin, Channel 4’s Dispatches, Christina Lamb, Sue Lloyd-Roberts, Robert Fisk and Marie Claire magazine, among many others.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

“This year we’re marking 25 years of the Amnesty media awards and it’s extremely heartening to see the breadth and depth of the entries to the 2016 Amnesty Media Awards.

“A sure sign of any healthy democracy is a fearless and inquiring press.

“These awards are a way of recognising the extraordinary courage and skill of some of the world’s best journalists.

The shortlist

Documentaries

• BBC Our World, The Killing of Farkhunda
• Assassin Films for BBC Storyville, India’s Daughter (Leslee Udwin)
• ITV, Saudi Arabia Uncovered (James Jones)

Judges: Eammon Matthews, Naresh Puri, James Rogan, Beatrice Rubens, Sharron Ward

Gaby Rado Award

• Maeve McClenaghan, Freelance
• Waad Al Kateeb, Channel 4 News
• Rossalyn Warren, BuzzFeed News

Judges: Oly Duff, Cathy Newman, Natalie Watson, Zubeida Malik, Naomi Westland

Features

• AA Gill, Sunday Times Magazine, They’ll Smuggle Anyone Across The River
• Annie Kelly & Mei-Ling McNamara, The Guardian, A Slave in Scotland: I Fell Into A Trap And Couldn’t Get Out
• Sophie McBain, New Statesman, A Second Life

Judges: Decca Aitkenhead, Steve Bloomfield, Stuart McGurk, Victoria Harper

Multimedia

• BBC Media Action, Your Phone Is Now A Refugee’s Phone
• The Guardian, 6 x 9: A Virtual Experience Of Solitary Confinement
• The Guardian, The County: the story of America's deadliest police

Judges: Berry Cochrane, Laurie Hanna, Marguerite Howell, Wendie Ottewill

Nations and Regions

• BBC Spotlight NI, Missing
• The Detail, Abortion Exported: The Women Travelling For Terminations
• Herald Magazine, Syria: The Exodus

Judges: Sangeeta Bhabra, Patrick Corrigan, Wesley Johnson, Sarah Smith

News

• Emma Graham-Harrison, The Observer, The World Looks Away As Blood Flows In Burundi
• Oliver Holmes & Tom Phillips, The Guardian, Gui Minhai: The Strange Disappearance Of A Publisher Who Riled China’s Elite
• Anthony Loyd, The Times, His Special Beheading Knife

Judges: James Ball, Niall Couper, Tracy McVeigh, Hannah Strange, Joel Taylor

Photojournalism

• Robin Hammond, Where Love Is Illegal, Sunday Times Magazine 
• Andrew Testa, Migrant Crisis Special, Sunday Times Magazine
• Daniella Zalcman, Signs Of Your Identity, National Geographic 

Judges: Marcus Bleasdale, Andrea Kurland, Russ O’Connell, Maggie Paterson

Radio

• BBC Radio 4, A New Life in Europe
• BBC World Service, Stealing Innocence In Malawi
• RTE Radio 1, Documentary On One: Cairo Cellmates 

Judges: Louise Orton, James Rea, Roger Sawyer, Mike Wooldridge

Student 

• Emmanuel Odafe, Slum Dwellers
• Temitope Kalejaiye, Almajiri is Begging
• Areej Zayat, Palmyra

Judges: Kathryn Bromwich, Richard Brooks, Louise Orton, Elizabeth Pears

TV News

• BBC News, One Girl’s Journey: The story of Nujeen Mustaffa
• Channel 4 News, Agony of Aleppo 
• CNN, Undercover in Syria

Judges: Eulette Ewart, Nevine Mabro, Camilla Mankabady, Paul Royall, Dominic Waghorn