» Unknown citizen wins a George Polk Award

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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Anton Harber: Media

Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio

Daily newspaper sales, South Africa
(Ave sales Jul-Dec)
1960 - 681 053 (Population 17,3m)
1970 - 723 566 (22m)
1980 - 803 229 (27,5m)
1990 - 1 214 396 (35,2m)
2000 - 1 117 886 (44m)
2006 - 1 600 000 (47,3m)
2011 - 1 310 000 (49m)

(Sources: ABC and nationmaster.com)

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“The (Incwala) ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the (Swaziland) king’s return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual contemplation. Among its highlights is a symbolic demonstration by the king of his power and dominance in a process involving his penetration of a black bull … But last year’s selected bull, according to a recent account from a whistle-blowing Incwala initiate, objected strongly, and threw off Africa’s last absolute monarch.” - Some surprises in this (un-bylined) account of Swaziland politics in Southern African Report

“When the Great Zucchini arrived that Saturday morning, Don had no idea who he was. Frankly, he didn’t look like a great anything. He looked like a house painter, Don thought, with some justification. He wears no costume. He was in painter’s pants, a coffee-stained shirt and a two-day growth of beard. He toted his beat-up props in beat-up steamer trunks, with ripped faux leather and broken hinges hanging askew.” - A classic of magazine profiling, by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.

Diepsloot (Jonathan Ball, 2011)

Diesploot: Of Frogs and Fractals, a public lecture at the University of Johannesburg, 4 August 2011

Troublemakers - The Best of South Africa’s Investigative Journalism (Jacana, 2101), edited by Anton Harber and Margaret Renn

Introduction - The Troublemakers: An account of the rise of a new wave of investigative journalism in South Africa.

What is Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic, edited by Kristin Palitza, Natalie Ridgard, Helen Struthers and Anton Harber (Fanele, 2010)