Frontline coverage from Ukraine to Haiti takes Bayeux awards for war reporters
France’s prestigious Prix Bayeux war correspondents’ awards have gone to journalists covering some of the world’s most gruelling conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, Haiti and Myanmar.
Issued on:
2 min
Ten reporters from different countries were recognised for their outstanding work in television, radio, print and photography.
Held in Normandy on Saturday night, the 30th edition of the awards was marked with a homage to Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed on assignment on Friday while covering the conflict on Israel’s borders.
Tributes were also paid to journalists who died earlier in the year, including French video journalist Arman Soldin, killed in a rocket attack in eastern Ukraine in May.
Prizewinners
British-Italian freelance photographer Siegfried Modola was honoured for his work which saw him clandestinely enter Myanmar amid the unrest that followed a 2021 coup.
It is the second honour for his photo essay on a militia group for Canada’s Globe and Mail, which also won the Visa d’or award at last month’s International Photojournalism Festival in Perpignan.
Anthony Loyd, a British reporter with The Times, took the written press prize for his investigative reporting on Isis’s “forgotten hostage” John Cantlie, a Briton kidnapped by the Islamic extremists in Syria in 2012.
Swiss RTS radio and France Info reporter Maurine Mercier was singled out for a harrowing audio piece on a woman twice raped in Bucha, Ukraine.
“I often work far from the frontlines because it really scares me and I want to give time to witnesses, but I would like to pay tribute to all those who are currently at the front,” Mercier said as she accepted the prize.
Winning the television award were CNN team Nick Paton Walsh, Brice Laine, Natalie Gallon and Etienne Dupont for a piece documenting war between Haiti’s police and gangs.
“France’s colonial past plays a huge role in what’s happening in Haiti today. I’m glad our reporting has won here,” Walsh told the jury.
Jury president, veteran photojournalist Don McCullin, said the prize winners were selected after lengthy and tough debate.
Other winners
-
Young Reporter – Print: Francis Farrell of The Kyiv Independent, for his reporting on Russian and Ukrainian forces’ battle for Bakhmut.
-
Grand Format Television: Edward Kaprov, Daniel Fainberg and Eugene Titov, Arte Reportage, “Ukraine: a photographer in war”.
-
Video Image: Quentin Sommerville and Darren Conway, BBC News, for frontline reporting in Ukraine.
-
Public’s Choice – Photo: Paul Bronstein, Getty Images, “The consequences of Ukraine war”.
“It has been a great honour and a great experience to be here,” McCullin said.
“It was not easy to decide the winners but every member of the jury was a generous and kind judge. The losers must not feel sad and the winners deserved what they got.”
(with AFP)
https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20231015-frontline-coverage-from-ukraine-to-haiti-takes-bayeux-awards-for-war-reporters Frontline coverage from Ukraine to Haiti takes Bayeux awards for war reporters
