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2018 UNCA Awards Winners

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2018 UNCA Awards Winners

The United Nations Correspondents Association is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 UNCA Awards.

This year celebrates the 70th Anniversary of the UN Correspondents Association!

On Wednesday, December 5th, 2018 the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) awarded the winners of the 2018 UNCA Awards for best print, broadcast and online media coverage of the United Nations, U.N. agencies and field operations. The 23rd annual UNCA Awards took place at Cipriani 42nd Street – 110 East 42nd Street New York with Guest of honor: UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Amal Clooney was awarded: 2018 UNCA Global Citizen of the Year, and Adrian Grenier was awarded: 2018 UNCA Global Advocate of the Year.

The Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize

For print (including online media) coverage of the United Nations, UN agencies and field operations
sponsored by The Alexander Bodini Foundation

This prize is named in honor of Elizabeth Neuffer, the Boston Globe bureau chief at the United Nations, died while on assignment in Baghdad in 2003. She was a model journalist who proved throughout her career that objectivity does not have to mean neutrality. She was passionate, courageous and compassionate, drawing attention to the forgotten places in the world and to the overlooked victims of war. She explored the forces that can ignite fratricidal and genocidal conflict and her work helped inspire the movement that led to the creation of the International Criminal Court. Personally, her colleagues in UNCA treasure her for her inveterate good humor, which counterbalanced her deadly serious explorations of the darker sides of modern history.

Neuffer Gold Medal Recipient

Fritz Schaap Der Spiegel

2018 Elizabeth Neuffer Foundation Gold Medal Recipient, Fritz Schaap is an award-winning German crisis reporter mainly working for the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel. He has been reporting from the Middle East and Africa for almost a decade, covering wars in Syria, Iraq and Somalia. He studied Islamic studies in Berlin, Damascus and Alexandria and was a Beirut correspondent for Zeitenspiegel Agency. Fritz follows and records in depth Majid Diallo’s enforced retreat from the shores of the Mediterranean to his home in Guinea. Tracking his and his family’s despair shows how migrants are preyed upon at every stage of their journey, all the more poignantly when the great expectations of his village and family are shattered.

Fritz’s Winning Story

A Failed Journey on the African Migrant Trail:

Majid Diallo set off for Europe carrying the expectations of his friends, family and village. But he didn’t make it. His story is one of struggle, imprisonment, several brushes with death — and an excruciating return home. bit.ly/2ubeHpZ

Neuffer Silver Medal Recipient

Didem Tali Freelance

2018 Elizabeth Neuffer Foundation Silver Medal Recipient, Didem Tali is a multimedia journalist whose collaborations includ the National Geographic, NYTimes.com, BBC and more. She covers global development and gender equality issues around the world. From landfills in Mongolia to minefields in Cambodia, Didem shows the quietly heroic efforts of individuals and organizations to reach international standards of health, pollution control and maternal and child health.

Didem’s Winning Stories

  • How Mongolia Revolutionized Reproductive Health for Nomadic Women:
    bit.ly/2FBnHZl
  • Trash to Treasure: A Mongolian Man Turns a Landfill Into a Children’s Park:
    bit.ly/…
  • Cambodia’s female deminers clean the country of war’s deadly reminders:
    bit.ly/2VojijG

Neuffer Bronze Medal Recipient

Fabiola Ortiz dos Santos Freelance

2018 Elizabeth Neuffer Foundation Bronze Medal Recipient, Fabiola Ortiz dos Santos is a Luso-Brazilian journalist whose work is at the crossroads of journalism, human rights based approaches to journalism, development and international relations. She travels through the Congolese war zones exploring the effects of the war on women and young people and the efforts to ameliorate the situation on the ground while capitals dither.

Fabioa’s Winning Stories

  • Using Capoeira to heal trauma for former child soldiers: bit.ly/2H8bU8e
  • Lack of Birth Certificates Exposes Congolese Girls to Early Marriage: bit.ly/2yyx3kO
  • ‘They Told Me I Would Be A Soldier’: The DRC Conflict’s Forgotten Girls: bit.ly/2mcINVY

The Prince Albert II of Monaco & UNCA Global Prize

For print (including online media) and broadcast media (TV & Radio) coverage of Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Water

Since His accession to the Throne in 2005, Prince Albert II of Monaco has made sustainable development His priority. Through His personal leadership, he has committed to promote the well-being of vulnerable communities and the sustainable and equitable management of natural resources.

Prince Albert Gold Medal Recipient

Virginie Herz France 24

2018 Ricardo Ortega Memorial Gold Medal recipient, Virginie is France 24’s Foreign Affairs Editor and host of Actuelles, a weekly show of women reshaping the world. She studied political science, European affairs and journalism in France, Germany, UK and Spain. She has covered a broad array of international crises, conflicts and high-level summits. This Gold Medal was awarded to both Virgine and Annette Young (English Language correspondent). Virginie and Annette focus on the special role of female troops in UN peacekeeping missions as their participation has increasingly shown to be of a great benefit to the local population as well as UN forces.

Virginie’s Winning Story (Français)

L’ONU encourage une plus grande mixité au sein des Casques bleus: bit.ly/2BZUdnQ

Prince Albert Gold Medal Recipient

Annette Young France 24

2018 Ricardo Ortega Memorial Gold Medal recipient, Annette Young is a senior journalist and news presenter for France 24 Television. Annette is the presenter of the English language show on France 24. She has reported from Europe, the Middle East and Asia and has worked for the Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and SBS Television Australia.

Annette’s Winning Story (English)

Parity on the frontline: U.N. seeks to boost number of female peacekeepers: bit.ly/2UfxnQq

Joint Silver Medal Winners

Widad Franco NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation

2018 Ricardo Ortega Memorial Joint Silver Medal Recipient, Widad Franco is a producer for NHK Japan Broadcasting covering the United Nations in New York and operations around the world. She also reports on policy and social issues in the United States and Latin America.

Widad Franco – NHK Team’s Winning Story

Flights Fight Diseases: youtu.be/i6M9cdPmaB8

Joint Silver Medal Winners

Fumitaka Sato NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation

2018 Ricardo Ortega Memorial Joint Silver Medal Recipient, Fumitako Sato is NHK’s UN correspondent and has been a reporter for the network’s International News Division since 1992. He has vast Asia policy expertise spending years covering the continent.

Joint Silver Medal Winners

Kazutoshi Kodera NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation

2018 Ricardo Ortega Memorial Joint Silver Medal Recipient NHK Team member, Kazutoshi Kodera has worked as a videographer specializing in North and Latin America field coverage for more than 10 years. His film and videography portfolio includes TV documentary, corporate, travel and adventure films. The NHK television crew accompanied by UNICEF health specialists documented the use of the latest technology, including drones equipped with high-definition cameras to map water-logged areas that are a natural habitat for malaria-borne mosquitoes, to fight diseases.

Joint Bronze Medal Winners

Liling Tan Feature Story News & China Global TV Network

2018 Ricardo Ortega Memorial Joint Bronze Medal Recipient, Liling Tan is a Singaporean journalist with Feature Story News, and UN correspondent for China Global TV Network. Her career spans business, finance and international affairs coverage, connecting the dots between economics and geopolitics, peace and security, countries and cultures. Liling’s three-part documentary on the six official languages of the UN is noted for its originality as she embarked on learning for herself how to pronounce some French and Russian words and trying to work as an interpreter. The UN decided at its founding in 1945 that Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish are the organization’s common and diplomatic languages.

Following are the first four installments for a CGTN America web series on the official languages of the United Nations. Liling Tan puts together a story in each of the six languages by working with CGTN’s international news team to script and deliver in that language. The aim of the series is to make UN coverage more accessible to a wider range of CGTN’s international and audiences.

Speaking the official languages of the UN:

  • Français Language Day

    Bonjour! Parlez-vous français? March 20th marks French Language Day at the United Nations, celebrating the first of six official U.N. language days throughout the year. Here’s U.N. correspondent Liling Tan filing her first story, in French, with a little help from a U.N. insider and our multilingual news team.
    youtu.be/PJKbwuNSreA

  • ¡Español Language Day!

    ¡Saludos! For part three of our web series on U.N. languages, Liling Tan tries her hand at a news story in Español! Follow her as she dives into another new language, looking into the Latin women helping to break the glass ceiling in politics and diplomacy.
    youtu.be/-9mQ0Hhdn1Y

  • Liling Tan Learns Russian To Report On Effectiveness Of Sports Diplomacy

    Just In Time For The World Cup Final!! In The Latest Installment Of Our Series On The Official Languages Of The United Nations, CGTN’S Liling Tan Learns Russian From The Experts To Tell A Story About The Effectiveness Of Sports Diplomacy На Русском.
    Youtu.Be/GFA0KO0WpoU

  • Chinese Language Day

    Aspiring multilinguist Liling Tan once again tested her skills at yet another language. For this second part of our U.N. languages webseries, Liling reports in Mandarin, on the growing interest in Chinese language at the U.N., and what it tells us about China’s increasing visibility on the global stage.
    youtu.be/ayM77i-MqRU

  •  

Joint Bronze Medal Winners

Majeed Gly Rudaw Media Network

2018 Ricardo Ortega Memorial Joint Bronze Medal Recipient, Majeed Gly (the first Kurdish speaking UN reporter), offers an opportunity for millions of Kurdish speaking viewers in Iraq and the broader region to have a better understanding of the UN and international politics. Prior to working as New York/UN Bureau Chief for Rudaw Media Network, his production work with ABC News on the Syrian conflict garnered him two Emmy Award nominations, the first for an Iraqi Kurdish journalist. He maintains a high-profile by demanding more attention on issues important to minorities, from human rights to war-ravaged areas in the world often neglected by mainstream media.

Majeed’s Winning Stories

  • Human Rights Violations Used as Diplomatic Tool to Point Fingers:
    bit.ly/2EniG6X
  • UN Member Countries Not Voicing Serious Concrn about What is happening in Afrin:
    bit.ly/2EsyIwz
  • United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals Adgenda:
    bit.ly/2VtPJx9

The Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize

For broadcast media (TV & Radio) coverage of the United Nations, UN agencies and field operations

This prize is Named in honor of Ricardo Ortega, formerly the New York correspondent for Antena 3 TV of Spain, was one of the leading Spanish journalists of his generation. His determination to bear witness first hand to what was happening around the world took him to dozens of countries. His war reporting from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Yugoslavia and Georgia was especially notable and he had a reputation for honesty, independence, determination and courage shown, for example, by his skeptical coverage of the evidence for Iraqi WMD’s presented to UN. Ricardo Ortega was killed by gunfire while covering Haiti on March 2004.

Gold Medal Winner

Ben Taub The New Yorker

2018 Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Gold Medal Recipient, Ben Taub is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His work has won the Livingston Award, an RFK Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and a George Polk Award. He is one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Media. Ben reveals the enormous obstacles to efforts by local authorities and the UN to address the increasing threat of famine and social breakdown for the 100 million people in Central Africa’s Sahel affected by the fate of the once massive Lake Chad. The great body of water has shrunk 90 percent in the past two decades. He places the environmental crisis in the context of threats by Boko Haram, tribal war and political corruption.

Ben’s Winning Story

Lake Chad: The World’s Most Complex Humanitarian Disaster

Ortega Silver Medal Recipient

Thin Lei Win Thomson Reuters Foundation

2018 Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Silver Medal Recipient, Thin Lei Win was born and raised in Yangon, Myanmar, Thin has been reporting on humanitarian issues since 2008. She now focuses on food security and agricultural issues globally, particularly in developing countries. Thin provides a fascinating, well-written and counter-intuitive series of articles addressing the contribution of agriculture and forestry to nearly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. This contrasts with the usual focus on reducing emissions in the energy sector. Attention is given to making agriculture climate-smart and more resilient to climate change. She cites sources such as FAO and IFAD and other UN agencies.

Thin’s Winning Stories

Ortega Bronze Medal Recipient

Patrick Mayoyo Next Generation Media Ltd

2018 Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Bronze Medal Recipient, Patrick Mayoyo is an award-winning investigative journalist with a track record in social justice. He writes about environmental degradation that aims to spark reform. Patrick’s entry is a sterling example of a local environment story with a global dimension. His two-part series is on the threat posed by the plan for a nearby coalgenerated power plant to the eco-system of Lamu Island, the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He notes the investment of the US conglomerate General Electric in the Chinese-funded enterprise that violates the Paris Climate Accord,to which Kenya is a signatory.

Patrick’s Winning Stories

UNCA Awards Judges:

Antonio Carlucci
Ian Williams
Dr. Ralph Engelman
Synove Trier
David Liu
Georges Leclere
Pierre Fabian

2018 UNCA Awards Gallery

All 2018 UNCA Awards

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