Journalists reporting on the conflict in Iraq, a humanitarian crisis in Sudan, the plight of children in Uganda's insurrection and a deadly school hostage siege in Russia have been honoured with the annual Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents.
Jim MacMillan, a photographer for the Associated Press (AP) who covered fighting between Iraqi insurgents and US troops in the holy city of Najaf, won first place in the photojournalism category, while AP photographer John Moore took second place for his work in Iraq. Both were members of the AP photo team in Iraq which won a Pulitzer Prize this year.
The Prix Bayeux-Calvados is a gathering of all international written press, television, radio and photo media players. It rewards a report on a conflict situation or its consequences for civil populations, or on a news item regarding the defense of freedoms and democracy. This year's prizes were announced yesterday.
French journalist Vincent Hugeux of L'Express magazine won the written press category for a report on children in Uganda, where a vicious rebellion has devastated lives.
The radio award went to two British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalists, Ishbel Matheson and Dan McMillan, who reported on rapes in the Darfur region of western Sudan during fighting between settled farming communities and nomadic herding tribes competing for land and water.
The television prize was awarded to four reporters from Britain's ITN-ITV News. Julian Manyon, Sacha Lomakin, Artem Drabkin and Patrick O'Ryan-Roeder reported on the September 2004 school siege in the southern Russian town of Beslan, which ended with 331 dead, many of them children.
The contest's first place awards include a cash prize of $9,230.
The Bayeux prizes were first awarded in 1994 to recognise journalists who excel in perilous conditions in order to provide free and democratic information. Bayeux was one of the first towns liberated from Nazi occupation in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The town of Bayeux will, in partnership with the Conseil Général du Calvados, organises public events including photo exhibitions, shows, debates, meetings in the presence of renowned international reporters.
