The Frontline Club has announced the winners of the Frontline Club Award and the Frontline Memorial Tribute Award for excellence in journalism, to be presented by Allan Little on Wednesday 23 November at the Annual Party and Awards. Frontline Club members can book to attend here.
2011 Frontline Club Award
This year the Frontline Club award will be presented to two journalists, Nick Davies and Matthieu Mabin, to acknowledge their exceptional journalism, integrity, courage and independence of spirit. Davies in person and Mabin via Skype will accept their Awards at the ceremony in London tomorrow evening.
Investigative journalist Nick Davies, is to receive the Frontline Club award for his investigation for the Guardian into the phone hacking scandal which led to the closure of the News of the World and the questioning of News Corporation’s Rupert and James Murdoch by the Commons culture committee. He has been a journalist since 1976 and is the bestselling author of Flat Earth News, on falsehood and distortion in the media.
Vaughan Smith, Founder of the Frontline Club and a judge of the Awards said of Davies’ nomination:
“Nick Davies‘ work this year has led to a shake up of the media. Though his pursuit of the truth was not always popular with his colleagues in journalism he persevered, and we’re only just beginning to see the impact of his revelations.”
Matthieu Mabin will receive the Frontline Club Award for his camera work in Libya. Mabin is a special correspondent for France 24 and has worked in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Ivory Coast. His journey with Libyan rebel forces as they advance on Tripoli at the end of August this year was made into two extended news pieces entitled The Tripoli Brigade and was broadcast on France 24.
Commenting on the decision to present this year’s annual award to Matthieu Mabin, Gary Knight, one of the judges, said:
“Matthieu Mabin demonstrated exceptional courage. He also worked on an a well thought out and well constructed narrative story that demanded great journalistic skills and real focus and tenacity – that is something we don’t see enough on TV and the spirit should be saluted.”
2011 Frontline Memorial Tribute Award
The Memorial Tribute Award is to be posthumously awarded to three photojournalists who were killed while working in Libya this year: Anton Hammerl, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros. Hetherington and Hondros were killed in the same incident in Misrata, Libya in April 2011, while Hammerl was killed in the Libyan desert in the same month.
Commenting on the decision to present this year’s Memorial award to Anton Hammerl, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, Jon Lee Anderson said:
“to an unusual degree, the year 2011 and the Libya conflict represented a huge loss of life for several highly talented and dearly beloved members of our profession. “
This year’s judges were: the New Yorker‘s Jon Lee Anderson, Gary Knight VII photojournalist, Carlotta Gall from the New York Times, Jeremy Bowen and Allan Little from the BBC and Frontline Club Founder Vaughan Smith. Both awards focus on journalistic integrity, courage and independence of spirit, regardless of nationality or media discipline and include the work of freelances.
The Frontline Club Award aims to recognise an outstanding body of work or series of contributions over a one-year period while the Frontline Memorial Tribute is dedicated to the memory of Frontline Club members killed in the course of their work.
The Frontline Club is grateful to Canon for once again sponsoring the Frontline Club Awards.
