swissinfo takes top honours at journalism awards
swissinfo journalist, Vincent Landon, has been named Internet Journalist of the Year at the European Online Journalism Awards.
At a prize-giving ceremony in Barcelona on Thursday, Landon’s series “The Malaria Business” also won top prize in the science category.
Landon won the top award in the face of strong competition from other leading media organisations. BBC News Online won the prize for best feature story; Deutsche Welle for best news story; and the Financial Times website for best investigative reporting.
Judges described “The Malaria Business” (see related sites) as a “remarkable investigation of a largely neglected story – the devastating impact of malaria on the health of children in developing countries”.
Landon’s colleagues, Amy Clark, Kai Reusser (graphic designers) and Ayar Ibrahim (web master) were also commended for their contribution to the series. Credit also goes to swissinfo’s picture editor, Christoph Balsiger.
“It’s wonderful to get recognition,” said Landon. “But the people who should really be winning awards are the researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel and the Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre in Tanzania.”
Quality
swissinfo, part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, congratulated Landon on his awards. Acting editor-in-chief, Christoph Heri, said he believed the malaria series represented some of the highest quality journalism on the Internet.
“The Internet is ideal for explaining complex subjects such as the fight against malaria. Being able to use text, images, audio and video together really helps audiences understand the issues involved.
“We invested a lot of effort and resources into this series and are very pleased with the result.”
Killer disease
The 13 articles investigate the impact of malaria and the treatments available, using the examples of two countries to highlight the wider issues.
Tanzania is one of the countries worst affected by the disease while Switzerland is home to the World Health Organization, Medicines for Malaria Venture and internationally known pharmaceutical companies.
Landon traveled to Tanzania in March to see the effects of malaria first-hand and how it destroys thousands of young lives.
“Since malaria only affects developing countries, it doesn’t get the attention or the resources it deserves,” he said. “Yet it is killing an African child every 30 seconds and could be treated and prevented.”
Child mortality
In Tanzania, malaria kills about 80,000 people a year, mostly young children. Three years ago, a Swiss study in Ifakara showed that mosquito nets treated with insecticide could reduce child mortality by 27 per cent.
Based on the Swiss experience, Tanzania embarked on a national programme to spread net coverage nationwide. Last December, the project received $12 million from the Global Fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
“It’s a complicated story with lots of different angles,” said Landon. “You can’t talk about nets and prevention without looking at the treatments that are available and the whole question of drug resistance.
“You can’t describe vaccine research without looking at the life cycle of the malaria parasite. You can’t explain how DDT or insecticide treated nets work without knowing about the reproductive cycle of the mosquito.”
swissinfo
The European Online Journalism Awards are in their fifth year.
There were 1,014 entries this year, up 22 per cent on last year.
Entries were received from journalists in 20 European countries.
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