Announcing the Fifteenth Annual UNCA Award Winners! 

December 2010

click here for photo gallery

The Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize for written media (including online media) coverage of the UN and its agencies and work

sponsored by The Alexander Bodini Foundation

Julia Lyon - Salt Lake Tribune, US. read more

Yaroslav Trofimov - Wall Street Journal read more

John Heliprin - AP  read more

The United Nations Foundation Prize for entries in any medium that best covers the humanitarian and development aspects of the UN and its agencies.

Women's Feature Service - India read more

The Associated Press Team on The Millennium Development Goals read more

James Reinl - The National read more

The Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize for broadcast journalism coverage of the UN and its agencies

sponsored by the World Council of Peoples for the UN and Antena 3 TV Spain

Talal Al-Haj - Al Arabiya News Channel - read more

Miki Ebara, Jun Oikawa, Widad Franco & NHK World - NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corp

Minelle Piet Fernandez - Al Jazeera, Sri Lanka - read more

The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation/UNCA Global Prize for coverage of climate change

Penjor Tshering - Bhutan Broadcasting Service Corporation

John Heilprin - AP and, Gloria Chang - Guatevision, Guatemala read more

William Miller - Global Connections Television

Judges

Ian Williams - Awards Selection Chairman

David Andelman - World Policy Journal

Antonio Carlucci - L'espresso

Barbara Crossette 

Georges LeClere - LGMA

Isabelle Peters - Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation

Robert Skinner - UN Foundation

Judges Announcement of Winners

The 2010 UNCA Awards were among the most gratifying for the judges when they looked at the range of winners and entries.

In particular, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation/UNCA Global Prize gold award for climate change coverage went to Penjor Tshering, of the Bhutan Broadcasting Service Corporation for a documentary that exceeded all expectations. The team hiked on foot, when the mules could go no farther, up the Himalayas to where villagers were working boulder by boulder to open channels to lead off the melt water from receding glaciers to avoid catastrophic floods down their native valleys.

Prince Albert's prize rightly rewarded this tale of villagers with a zero carbon footprint of their own, living on the edge of the human environment, physically wrestling with the effects of others' emissions, not least since the crew making the film had combat the vertical mountain slopes themselves to make it.

John Heilpren of AP and Gloria Chang of Guatemala's Guatevision won Prince Albert joint silver awards for their respective examination of global and local implications of climate change, while Bill Miller of Global Connections TV won the bronze for his coverage of how the issue was dealt with at the UN.

In fact, the issue even dominated The Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize for broadcast journalism coverage of the UN and its agencies, sponsored by the World Council of Peoples for the UN and Antena 3 TV Spain, since Talal Al-Haj, of Al Arabiya News Channel won the gold for his series of reports from both the small islands, where the rising tides and increasing storms showed the stark effects of climate change, and his balanced and comprehensive coverage of the Copenhagen conference.

Miki Ebara, Jun Oikawa and Widad Franco of NHK Japan Broadcasting Corp won the silver for their detailed coverage of disarmament issues. Minelle Piet Fernandez, of Al Jazeera, Sri Lanka won the bronze for her attention aspects of the conflict with the Tamil rebels that the government is not always happy to see broadcast.

The Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize for written media coverage of the UN and its agencies and work, sponsored by The Alexander Bodini Foundation gold medal went to Julia Lyon, of the Salt Lake Tribune for her detailed exploration of the fate of a refugee from Myanmar. Julia, had the best excuse for not attending the ceremony, she was expecting to give birth any moment.

The Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov won the silver for his examination of reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan while John Heilprin of AP scored yet another medal, the bronze, for his detailed coverage and explanation of events at the UN.

The Gold medal for United Nations Foundation Prize for entries in any medium that best covers the humanitarian and development aspects of the UN and its agencies, went to the Women's Feature Service, of India, for their comprehensive and critical examination of how villages in India were meeting the MDGs.

The Silver was won by the Associated Press team whose global coverage of the MDG's was substantiated by detailed reports of how they were being met - or not- in places like Africa. James Reinl, of The National won a bronze for his harrowing onsite reports on the earthquake in Haiti and the difficulties afterwards.