This category was launched in memory of the late Sunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin who was killed reporting on the plight of people in the besieged Syrian city of Homs in 2012. It is free to enter and anyone can make a nomination.
The judges are looking for an outstanding, up and coming journalist of Marie’s calibre. Please submit a supporting statement and up to five examples of work which can be either from the last year or over a longer time period.
The judges said: “Whilst the world’s media has been banned from entering Gaza, these reporters were among those who have ensured that victims of the conflict still have a voice. It is a conflict zone which has become the most deadly in history for the media, with 137 journalists and media workers killed in just over a year.
“They’ve both captured the voice from the ground, shown tremendous courage in appalling circumstances and produced vivid, memorable stories. Whilst one chronicled the work of emergency crews working in Gaza during the first weeks of the conflict, the other winner covered the bombardment of Gaza even as his home was destroyed and he had to flee south with his family.”
The judges said: “Marie would have admired Bel’s self-starting courage. Bel is a journalist who has become one of the leading foreign correspondents in the world in recent years. She began her career as a freelance covering the Arab Spring, based in Egypt until she was detained and expelled by the Egyptian authorities for her reporting.
“We particularly admired her steadfast reporting from Ukraine and her excellent feature documentary on the country’s missing war dead put together without the budget of big broadcasters.”
The judges said: “Marie would have been thrilled by Rukhshana – by the novelty of women banding together to provide different perspectives of male-dominated Afghanistan in the face of death threats and intimidation; by their tremendous courage in continuing to report as the Taliban took over despite the obvious risks highlighted by the 22-year-old journalist on the run; and by the new ground they’ve broken in the Women Report Afghanistan series, touching on the uncertainties facing divorcees, single mothers and female police officers.”
Zahra Joya, founder of Rukhshana Media, collects the Marie Colvin Award at the British Journalism Awards 2021
The judges said: “She has a tenacity and seriousness of purpose that Marie Colvin would have admired. Xi Jinping’s China is one of the most important and most difficult countries in the world to cover, which is one reason we so admired her reporting. Like Marie, Sophia is determined to get to the truth, exposing cruelty, injustice and the abuse of human rights despite all attempts to stop her.”
• Shamima Begum was cruel enforcer in Isil’s morality police, say Syrian witnesses
Judges said: “Ensor’s reporting from north-east Syria makes readers identify with people they might otherwise fear – teenagers who ended up with ISIS. She is sympathetic but clear-eyed, and went to great lengths to verify stories through contacts around the world.”
