Amnesty International UK Media Awards - Purpose of The Awards

Purpose of The Awards

In 2002, Richard Bunting, former Director of Communications at Amnesty International UK said:

"Journalists play a crucial role in exposing human rights abuses and putting a human face to what otherwise can be dismissed as a distant tragedy. These awards recognise the fact that the media’s role is often difficult but can be enormously powerful in changing the actions and even policies of the perpetrators of human rights abuses."

Amnesty International believes that in recognizing excellence in human rights journalism journalists and commissioners are encouraged in increasing the quality and quantity of their human rights coverage. Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese pro-democracy leader, said at the 2011 awards ceremony that it is “through the media that the rest of the world gets to hear about what we have to undergo in this country.”. Amnesty have said of the award recipients:

"Without these journalists, who expose the unpalatable and highlight the hypocrisy of those who kill and torture, the guilty would be even less inclined than they are now to consider the implications of their actions. They portray the killers and the torturers in their true light and in this respect their work and that of Amnesty International is inextricably linked."

The Awards generate mutually beneficial publicity both for shortlisted entrants and for the Amnesty Interntional's work, and it also allows journalists and Amnesty's media team to network, facilitating better links between the UK media community and human rights campaigners. Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News International Editor, said of the awards:

"Amnesty Awards are really important. Because sometimes it’s very hard: you go in to see your editor and you say “something’s happening in such and such a country”; and it’s obscure, and it’s far away, and it’s expensive, and it’s difficult to get to, and there’s a much more interesting and immediate story somewhere else. And then maybe you point out that you won an Amnesty Award for a similar story a couple of years ago, and it makes them think: and it makes them think that they get some sort of kudos from this, and that it matters within the industry. So I think it’s tremendously important and I think Amnesty is doing a tremendous job by giving us these awards so that we can use them to say, "Yes, we’ve got to carry on reporting human rights, it really matters."

Amy Mackinnon, the 2012 winner of the student award for article "The Curious Case of John Oguchuckwu", said of the awards:

"The AIUK awards are a heartening reminder that, in the right hands, journalism can be a potent force for good,"