The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) celebrated their 16th Annual UNCA Awards Dinner and Dance, in honor of 2011's winners for the best written and electronic media coverage of the United Nations, its agencies and field operations. Prizes amounted to over $50,000 with $10,000 each for the main categories.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented prizes at the Awards Gala dinner, Wednesday, December 14 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York.
 
There were no entry fees of any kind for submissions. These awards were open to all journalists anywhere in the world.

The Awards were:

1. The Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize - sponsored by the Alexander Bodini Foundation, for written media (including online media) coverage of the UN and its agencies and their work.

Elizabeth Neuffer, the Boston Globe bureau chief at the United Nations, died while on assignment in Baghdad in 2003. She was a model journalist who proved throughout her career that objectivity does not have to mean neutrality. She was passionate, courageous and compassionate, drawing attention to the forgotten places in the world and to the overlooked victims of war. She explored the forces that can ignite fratricidal and genocidal conflict and her work helped inspire the movement that led to the creation of the International Criminal Court. Personally, her colleagues in UNCA treasure her for her inveterate good humour, which counterbalanced her deadly serious explorations of the darker sides of modern history. 

2. The Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize - for broadcast journalism coverage of the UN, and its agencies, jointly sponsored by the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations and Antena-3 of Spain.

Ricardo Ortega, formerly the New York correspondent for Antena 3 TV of Spain, was one of the leading Spanish journalists of his generation. His determination to bear witness first hand to what was happening around the world took him to dozens of countries. His war reporting from Afghani- stan, Chechnya, Yugoslavia and Georgia was especially notable and he had a reputation for honesty, independence, determination and courage shown, for example, by his skeptical coverage of the evidence for Iraqi WMD's presented to UN. He was killed by gunfire while covering Haiti on March 2004. 

3. The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation/UNCA Global Prize - for coverage of Climate Change.

The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation strives to act as an accelerator of projects and solutions for the environment. It promotes sustainable and equitable management of natural resources and places the individual at the center of its projects. It encourages the implementation of innovative and ethical solutions in three main areas: climate change, biodiversity and water. 

4. The United Nations Foundation prize - for coverage, in any medium, of the humanitarian and development aspects of the UN.

The UN Foundation is an advocate for the UN and a platform for connecting people, ideas and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems. The UN Foundation builds partnerships, grows constituencies, mobilizes resources and advocates policy changes to support the UN’s work for individual and global progress.

Questions regarding These Awards: 

Kindly Call The UNCA Office 1-212-963-7137.

UNCA Awards Committee:

Giampaolo Pioli (UNCA President), J. Tuyet Nguyen (Awards Event Chairman), Ian Williams (Awards Selection Chairman), Margaret Besheer (UNCA Treasurer), Richard Roth (Master of Ceremony).