On May 30th in Brussels the prestigious Albert Londres Award was presented to three journalists: Luc Mathieu, Cécile Allegra and Delphine Deloget. Luc Mathieu, a journalist with “Libération”, won the award for a series of articles on the Jihad in Syria and Iraq. In the broadcasting category, Cécile Allegra and Delphine Deloget were jointly awarded for their long documentary “Voyage en Barbarie” (selected in the Mediterranean Challenges category for this year’s PriMed). The film was accompanied by a web-doc on the web-site of lemonde.fr this autumn. The two journalists’ investigation traces what happens to captured Eritreans: they are taken to the Sinai, held prisoner and tortured while they wait for their families to pay the ransom – if they can. The powerful plus-point of this collection of poignant testimonies is the way views are inter-woven. As well as the difficult interviews with a few survivors, the film-makers managed to get interviews with a former executioner and a Bedouin Sheikh who liberates and helps these prisoners of the Sinai. The jury wanted to reward “a hard-hitting film, although marked by modesty and dignity.” The film also won awards at this year’s New York City International Film Festival.
The Albert Londres Award was created in 1933, one year after the death of the famous journalist. Every year since then it has be awarded to the best newspaper journalist, and, since 1985, to the best reporter using broadcasting tools, aged under 40 years.
Sources: lesinrocks.com et lemonde.fr
