Channel 4 News has been awarded the International Emmy for News for its Syria coverage at a ceremony in New York on Tuesday night.
The reports in the entry included, The Horror in Homs – a film by French photojournalist Mani, coverage of the death of the Sunday Time reporter Marie Colvin – plus live reporting from the Syrian border.
Mani was one of few independent journalists covering the siege on Homs and his remarkable footage pays testimony to his remarkable bravery, staying in the city for five weeks as it was relentlessly attacked by the Syrian army.
Mani managed to get out Homs just before Colvin was killed on 22 February 2012.
“These are both outstanding productions of horrific stories,” said Bruce L Paisner, president and chief executive of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “They fulfill the vital obligation of journalists and broadcasters to tell us what is really going on in our world, no matter how disturbing or controversial.”
The Intl Emmy For News goes toâ?? Channel 4 News: The Battle for Homs! Congratulations!
— News & Doc Emmys (@newsemmys) October 2, 2013
Channel 4 News Editor Ben de Pear, who collected the award, dedicated it to all those covering Syria, and to the memory of Colvin.
It is estimated, by the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, that 114 reporters and citizen journalists have been killed in the bloody civil war.
But it is ordinary people in Syria that have paid the highest price. The United Nations says that more than two million people have fled Syria since the start of the conflict, and more than four million have been displaced within their own country.
Making his Emmy acceptance speech @bendepear pic.twitter.com/VgHX5GYI2J
— oliver king (@oliverjamesking) October 2, 2013
In total, the UN says, 120,000 have been killed since the conflict began.
A UN team on weapons inspectors arrived in the country this week to begin the task of transferring Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile into international control.
The horror in Homs was produced by Teresa Smith, edited by Agnieszka Liggett, and reported by Channel 4 News Foreign Correspondent Jonathan Miller.
— oliver king (@oliverjamesking) October 2, 2013