Guardian correspondent wins Amnesty award for Egyptian uprisings coverage

A journalist who claimed he was beaten and arrested while reporting on the Egypt uprisings has won the Gaby Radio memorial award at the Amnesty International UK media awards.

Jack Shenker's account of the attack and his arrest was published in the Guardian in January, alongside his other work covering Egypt for the newspaper. He also captured an audio recording of his treatment.

Other winners on the night included the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the digital category for its online coverage of the Iraq War Logs.

The awards, which are in their 20th year, recognise excellence in human rights reporting across 12 categories in total.

This year that included a brand-new Student Award which went to Sophie Mei for 'Sex Trafficking: A Family Affair', published in Verita magazine.

David McKenzie, the journalist behind CNN's winning entry in the International Television & Radio category 'World's Untold Stories: Locked Up And Forgotten', which looked at the treatment of disabled people in Kenya, told Journalism.co.uk the recognition is "a real honour".

"It's great that Amnesty is recognising this reporting in such a strong field, particularly in our category there was extremely powerfully reporting from our colleagues at the BBC and that was really a great honour to be recognised."

CNN correspondent McKenzie, who is based in Nairobi, said he had the "luxury" of being able to spend a lot of time working on a story.

"Just over a year ago I did a news piece on the plight of people living with disabilities and mental illness. The complexity of the story and the overall power of the story we felt we needed to do more on this, so over that year we planned a good time to film it, get the trust of the NGO we worked with and figure out a way to access these very hard to uncover aspects of life."

He said the issue of mental health in Kenya is one which does not get attention in the mainstream press in the country, as well as the overall topic on a worldwide scale. As a result families "really wanted to tell their stories", he said.

The team did come up against some challenges while filming though, such as being locked up themselves while filming in one hospital. He added that this showed the "hidden nature" of the topic.

"What I'm most proud of is the fact we were able to start a conversation in Kenya ... It really did spark a debate and still in Kenya people will stop us on the street and ask us about the documentary. So for us that's the most powerful and important thing, is to start a conversation and then keep it going."

The winners of the Amnesty media awards were announced last night at a ceremony hosted by BBC News presenter George Alagiah.

During the event journalists sent tweets to Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev demanding the release of Eynulla Fatullayev, an Azerbaijani newspaper editor jailed four years ago, after allegedly publishing articles critical of the government.

"This was the 20th year of our awards and it was a vintage year for human rights journalism," Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said in a release.

"With entries of the highest calibre in category after category it was a hard job for our judges to pick the winners. The awards are fantastic tribute to some of the best journalists in the trade.

"Well done to all the winners, those that were shortlisted and everyone that tries to expose human rights abuses through their journalism. It's a vital job and we pay tribute to you."

A full list of the winners can be found below:

Digital
Bureau Of Investigative Journalism: Angus Stickler, Iain Overton, Rachel Oldroyd, Lucy Keating – Iraq War Logs

Gaby Rado Memorial Award
The Guardian: Jack Shenker – Bloody And Bruised In The Back Of A Truck (and others)

International Television & Radio
CNN International:  David McKenzie, Mike McCarthy, Sheri England, Ingrid Formanek, Earl Nurse, Fabien Muhire – World's Untold Stories: Locked Up And Forgotten

Magazines – consumer
GQ Magazine: Ed Caesar, Photographer: Bran Symondson – The Lost Boys

Magazines – newspaper supplements
(Joint winner): Guardian Weekend Magazine: Alice Vasey (pseudonym), editor: Merope Mills – Handle With Care
(Joint winner): The Sunday Times Magazine: Dan McDougall, photographer: Mariella Furrer – Cries From The Beloved Country

National Newspapers
The Independent: Andrew Buncombe – One Woman's Silent Quest For Peace

Nations & Regions
The Belfast Telegraph: Eamonn McCann – Bloody Sunday Inquiry
Judges: Suzanne Breen, Ian Cobain, Patrick Corrigan, Naresh Puri, David Williamson

Photojournalism
Marie Claire: Robin Hammond – If This Girl Was Raped By Soldiers …

Radio
BBC Radio 4: Hilary Andersson, Caroline Finnigan, Ali Safi, Polly Hope, Hugh Levinson – Bagram Airbase

Student award
VERITA Magazine: Sophie Mei – Sex Trafficking: A Family Affair

Documentary & Docudrama
More 4 True Stories (Clover Films): Najibullah Quraishi, Jamie Doran, Mike Healy, John Moffat – The Dancing Boys Of Afghanistan

Television news
Channel 4 News: Jonathan Miller, Ben De Pear, Girish Juneja, Sarah Corp, Nevine Mabro – Investigating The Possibility Of War Crimes In Sri Lanka

Image by Gigi Ibrahim on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

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