From Al-Jazeera English
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Five-year-old network recognised for its coverage of Arab Spring, and for innovative use of social media on The Stream.
Last Modified: 23 Feb 2012 04:42
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The five-year-old network has picked up a number of awards recently
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Al Jazeera English has been named News Channel of the Year at this year’s Royal Television Society Awards. Tuesday’s award saw the five-year-old broadcaster beating competitors including BBC News and Sky News. The Qatar-based channel earned praise for its frontline coverage of the Arab Spring, including the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and for being the first on the scene to report the death of Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader. “Al Jazeera English has had the most incredible year: a year where people took to the streets in protest, the economic crisis unfolded across Europe, and the world witnessed the devastating impact of the tsunami in Japan”, said Al Anstey, the channel’s managing director. “Al Jazeera English was there to capture every moment, and it is an even greater privilege for our reporters and bureaus across the world to receive this award in recognition of our great work.” Additionally, the network’s social media programme, The Stream, received the Innovative News Award for its in-depth analysis of the struggle between government loyalists and opposition protesters in Bahrain. The year-old DC-based programme, which relies heavily on social media platforms and Skype interviews for its content, brought the ongoing protests in Bahrain to the forefront and featured an intense Skype debate between Suhail Algosaibi, a government loyalist, and Zainab al-Khawajah, a Bahraini activist. Utilising content from micro-blogging service Twitter, social networking site Facebook, and video sharing site YouTube, the programme featured a series of questions posed by members of the public directly to the show’s participants via these platforms. |
