Bayeux-Calvados Prize 2020: Afghanistan in the spotlight
Closing ceremony for the 27th Bayeux-Calvados War Correspondents Prize, October 10, 2020. Géraud Bosman / RFI
Text by: Géraud Bosman-Delzons Follow
9 min
The high point of this 27th Bayeux-Calvados War Correspondents Prize, the trophy presentation ceremony again revealed, on Saturday 10 October, a harvest of high quality reports.
The health crisis weighed on attendance and programming, and only two winners were present to receive their trophy.
The mayor of Bayeux has confirmed his wish to make the Norman city the international capital of press freedom.
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From our special correspondent in Bayeux
“
The reporter who asks his editor to get his fingers out of his ass is with us
!
», Launches master of ceremonies Nicolas Poincaré with laughter.
The insolent reporter?
Ed Vulliamy, 66, former of Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Mexico, September 11, Iraq… and fantastic president of the jury of this 27th edition of the Bayeux Prize, “
one of the presidents the most involved in the history of this prize
”, congratulated Nicolas Poincaré twice.
In 2003, Vulliamy fought his own newspaper which aligned with the Blair government's decision to join American troops in the Second Direct War.
Ed takes from a source the claim that the evidence for the existence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, brandished by the Bush administration to justify military intervention, is fabricated.
Problem, this source may be from the CIA, it is retired, so too adulterated in the eyes of his hierarchy.
This particularly eloquent episode of journalism gave rise to a fiction,
Official Secrets
, which premiered at the Prix Bayeux.
► To read also:
Ed Vulliamy at the Bayeux Prize: "We are not heroes"
Ten rewarded witnesses
The years have not got the better of his panache and his sense of commitment to the truth.
A truth "
on trial today
", according to him.
“
Our world, led by Trump, Bolsonaro, Erdogan, Putin, Xi Jinping, is a world of fools.
We are the witnesses.
We are part of the defense in the truth trial.
Freedom of the press is the freedom of the truth and journalists are targeted because they want to tell the truth to those who do not want witnesses.
"The Bayeux Prize is therefore there for that, every year: to reward testimonies,"
the Oscars of war reporting
", says Vulliamy.
Ten in total received first prizes for their work in some of the world's riskiest areas.
Among them, Afghanistan, a country whose reprieve seems over.
This is what Lorenzo Tugnoli shows in
Afghanistan, the longer war
, a series of photos taken for the
Washington Post
, mainly portraits of fighters in black and white, honored with the first photo prize.
“
My work in Afghanistan extended between November 2019 and February 2020, as the United States negotiated a peace deal with the Taliban.
The deal has been found, but the war continues.
We must not forget Afghanistan.
"
NANGARHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN - DECEMBER 11, 2019: A group of Taliban fighters have lunch in a hiding place in a remote part of Khogiani district.
Lorenzo Tugnoli / The Washington Post / Contrasto
Afghanistan in pictures but also in sound.
The voices of the wounded from the MSF maternity hospital in a Hazara neighborhood in Kabul, stormed on May 12 by ISIS terrorists.
We can hear them in the report by Sonia Ghezali, RFI correspondent in Kabul, and her colleague Shahzaib Wahlah, who went there two days later.
Their report, rewarded by the jury, "
is what we heard loudest in radio in 27 years
", judge Nicolas Poincaré, himself a radio journalist.
► To read also:
Bayeux Prize: Sonia Ghezali, RFI correspondent in Afghanistan, awarded
And then there is Syria, a staple of war for nine years for reporters, often young.
Journalist at
Le Monde
, Allan Kaval wins the written press trophy for his story on the slow death of ISIS jihadists in a Syrian prison in the governorate of Hasake, in the northeast of the country.
Hundreds of detainees, former supporters of the Islamic State group's “caliphate”, are crammed there, often in poor physical shape when captured.
For this work published in December 2019, Allan Kaval, who has been covering Syria, Kurdistan and Iraq for several years, also won the statuette for the
Ouest-France /
Jean-Marin
prize
, this time unanimously by the ten members of this jury of the great regional daily.
Like Sonia Ghezali who remained in Kabul, like Lorenzo Tugnoli who lives in Beirut, and like many other laureates, Allan Kaval was not present to receive his prize.
He listened to the ceremony from his room at Pitié-Salpétrière in Paris where he has been
hospitalized since October 2 after being seriously injured
by rocket fire in the village of Martouni, in Nagorny Karabakh.
The photographer Rafael Yaghobzadeh who accompanied him was also injured and evacuated to Paris.
Syria again, this time on video:
In the Idleb Trap
, title of the report by Suzanne Allant, Yamaan Khatib and Fadi Al-Halabi, awarded in the large format category.
“
This is the third documentary part that we are carrying out on Idleb.
We wanted to bring back the voices of civilians who disappear behind the geopolitical treatment of things.
Four million of them are still suffering in this city,
”says Suzanne Allant.
“
This is the first time that Bayeux has been awarded a prize to someone who has not been there
,” explains Nicolas Poincaré.
This documentary, broadcast on Arte, is indeed a division: Suzanne Allant has taken her two Syrian colleagues from Idleb at a distance.
Bayeux, future world capital of the press?
The jury was split equally between this report and
Yemen: at forced march
from Olivier Jobard (Magnéto Presse) for Arte / France24 which finally won the video image prize.
These images, perhaps unique in the world, of young Ethiopians who set off for 2000 km on foot, on a migratory route which should lead them to Saudi Arabia, not knowing that on the way, there is Yemen in war.
Yemen, forced march
was awarded in the image-video category.
Finally, the other major report on this list, concerns other people left behind, in China this time:
Uyghur families
.
Signed John Sudworth and Wang Xiping for the BBC, it won two awards: that of the short format in and the price of high school students and apprentices.
"
Covid obliges
", the attendance figures for this 27th edition are down, admitted the mayor of Bayeux, Patrick Gomont.
"
After more than a quarter of a century of existence, this event did more than demonstrate the interest of the public, professionals and the teaching world for international news and for the profession of war reporter
",
estimated the Norman aedile.
Based on this observation, it therefore confirms the ambition set out last year to make Bayeux "
the international capital of press freedom
": "
A mediation space, unique in the world, able to shed light on conflicts through a permanent collection, based among other things on the Bayeux Prize archives since 1994;
a place of exchange around journalism, press freedom, exhibition, awareness.
"
“
This project is taking shape and could experience decisive progress in the coming weeks.
“, He assured.
2020 Bayeux-Calvados Prize winners
PHOTO CATEGORY - INTERNATIONAL JURY - NIKON PRIZE
1st Prize: Lorenzo TUGNOLI
CONTRASTO for
The Washington Post
The longer war - AFGHANISTAN
2nd Prize: Anthony WALLACE
AFP
Hong Kong, a popular revolt - HONG KONG
3rd Prize: Laurent VAN DER STOCKT
Le Monde
Iraqi
protest
: young people demand change
IRAQ
TV CATEGORY - INTERNATIONAL JURY - AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AWARD
1st Prize: John SUDWORTH and Wang XIPING
BBC
Uyghur families - CHINA-TURKEY
2nd Prize: Julie DUNGELHOEFF, Catherine NORRIS TRENT and Abdallah MALKAWI
France 24
Libya: infernal trap - LIBYA
3rd Prize: Nicolas JOXE, Abdulrazzak MADI, Fajr ORABY, Belal ALBAYUSH and Obaida ALNABWANI
SMART NEWS / ARTE
Syria: civilians under bombs near Aleppo - SYRIA
PHOTO CATEGORY - AUDIENCE PRIZE SPONSORED BY AFD
1st Prize: Anthony WALLACE
AFP
Hong Kong, a popular revolt - HONG KONG
WRITTEN PRESS CATEGORY - INTERNATIONAL JURY
PRIZE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CALVADOS
1st Prize: Allan KAVAL
Le Monde
In north-eastern Syria, the slow death of jihadist prisoners - SYRIA
2nd Prize: Fritz SCHAAP
Der Spiegel
Rain wars - TCHAD
3rd Prize: Jack LOSH
Foreign Policy
Central African forest rangers are as threatened as the animals they protect - CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
RADIO CATEGORY - INTERNATIONAL JURY - LANDING COMMITTEE PRIZE
1st Prize: Sonia GHEZALI and Wahlah SHAHZAIB
RFI
Afghanistan: after the attack on the MSF maternity hospital - AFGHANISTAN
2nd Prize: Gwendoline DEBONO
Europe 1
A strike, fractures: the death of General Soleimani in Iraq - IRAQ
3rd Prize - Émilie BAUJARD
RTL
The undesirable people of Hasaké - SYRIA
YOUNG REPORTER CATEGORY (PHOTO) - INTERNATIONAL JURY
PRIZE CREDIT AGRICOLE NORMANDIE
1st Prize: Anas ALKHARBOUTLI
DPA
The war in Syria - SYRIA
GRAND FORMAT TV CATEGORY - INTERNATIONAL JURY
PRIZE CITY OF BAYEUX
1st Prize: Suzanne ALLANT, Yamaan KHATIB and Fadi AL-HALABI Cutouts
for Arte Reportage
Syria, in the Idlib trap - SYRIE
IMAGE VIDEO CATEGORY - INTERNATIONAL JURY
PRIZE ARTE, FRANCE 24, FRANCE TELEVISIONS
1st Prize: Olivier JOBARD
MAGNETO PRESSE for ARTE / France 24
Yemen: forced march - YEMEN
WRITTEN PRESS CATEGORY - WEST-FRANCE AWARD - JEAN MARIN
1st Prize: Allan KAVAL
Le Monde
In north-eastern Syria, the slow death of jihadist prisoners - SYRIA
TV CATEGORY - NORMANDY REGION PRIZE FOR LYCÉENS AND APPRENTICE
1st Prize: John SUDWORTH and Wang XIPING
BBC
Uyghur families - CHINA-TURKEY
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