The Rory Peck Trust has announced the three finalists shortlisted for the Rory Peck Award for Features, which recognise in-depth stories that look beyond the immediacy of news, and the three finalists nominated for the Rory Peck Award for News, which focuses on the immediacy of a news story. Both awards honour the bold approach and initiative of freelance journalists that lead to agenda-setting global news coverage.
"It is easy to assume that, like us, freelance camera people are merely observers to the tragedies, disasters and conflicts that they are sent out to cover," said Tina Carr, Director of the Rory Peck Trust. "Sadly, however, this is rarely the case. These awards acknowledge the immense courage that freelancers take to provide us with an unbiased perspective of worldwide events."
The winners will be announced at the Rory Peck Awards at The British Film Institute, Southbank, in London on November 13th 2008.
The finalists of the 2008 News Award are (in alphabetical order):
Clifford Derrick: Kibera Slum
Shot in Kenya, January 2008
Commissioned and broadcast by Al Jazeera English
Abdullahi Farah Duguf: Two Weeks in Mogadishu
Shot in Somalia, September 2007
Commissioned and broadcast by ITN/Channel 4 News
Subina Shrestha: Down the Irrawaddy Delta
Shot in Myanmar, May 2008
Commissioned and broadcast by Al Jazeera English
The finalists of the 2008 Features Award (in alphabetical order):
Rodrigo Vásquez: Inside Hamas
Shot in the Palestinian Authority Gaza, August–October 2007
Stampede Limited for Channel 4 International
Broadcast by Channel 4
Tim Hetherington: The Other War
Shot in Afghanistan, October 2007
Commissioned and broadcast by ABC Nightline
Vaughan Smith: Grenadiers Fighting in Helmand
Shot in Afghanistan, September 2007
Self funded. Broadcast by The Frontline Club Web Log/BBC Newsnight
