Unknown citizen wins a George Polk Award
February 21st, 2010
One of America’s most prestigious journalism prizes, the George Polk Award, has gone to the anonymous cellphone videographer who captured the dying moments of Iraqi protestor Neda Agha-Soltan.
It is the first time this award has gone to an anonymous person, as it has always been the preserve of professional journalists and photographers. The award - one of 13 given out this year - signals a shift to accept citizen reporters as a central part of the work of regular journalists. There have been other photographers who have won before for being in the right place at the right time, but never a citizen who makes no claim to being a professional. in fact, one who is not even known.
John Darton, curator of the Awards, was quoted saying: “This video footage was seen by millions and became an iconic image of the Iranian resistance. We don’t know who took it or who uploaded it, but we do know it has news value. This award celebrates the fact that, in today’s world, a brave bystander with a cellphone camera can use video-sharing and social networking sites to deliver news.”
Two other interesting winners were:
- A team of journalists from the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes — Charlie Reed, Kevin Baron and Leo Shane III — won the military reporting award for exposing the Pentagon’s secret use of a public relations company to profile and steer reporters toward “positive” coverage of the war in Afghanistan. It can’t be often that a military paper exposes the military. This one really is independent.
- ProPublic, the non-profit investigative reporting group - won the environmental reporting award. Abrahm Lustgarten won it for articles on the science and safety of a new drilling system for natural gas. This is also a clear sign that these kinds of funding-supported journalism initiatives are having an impact.
George Polk was a CBS reporter shot and killed during the Greek civil war in 1948. For full details, see here.
Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism
1 Comment Add your own
1. amandzing | March 9th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
the cynic would wonder who was paid the prize money…
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