Al Jazeera Digital wins best feature at Amnesty Media Awards

Slow Journalism/Features unit wins for story revealing brutality against civilians in Belarus.

Against steep competition, Al Jazeera Digital’s Slow Journalism/Features unit has won a prestigious Amnesty Media Award recognising outstanding human rights journalism.

The winning piece, conferred in the Features category for Walking Reminders of Atrocities, reveals harrowing accounts of state brutality against civilians in Belarus following the controversial 2020 elections.

Winners were announced on April 26 at the Amnesty Media Awards’ annual ceremony, in London, with BBC News Presenter Maryam Moshiri hosting the event.

Al Jazeera outshone other renowned media outlets such as BBC 100 Women, The Guardian, and The Sunday Times Magazine to clinch the top spot in the Features category.

To produce the long-read, journalists Olga Loginova and Ottavia Spaggiari, spent long hours with the subjects of the Feature, documenting the abuses and exposing continuing human rights violations in Belarus and the risks facing those who dare to speak out against the regime.

“I’m proud of our journalists, whose courageous reporting caught the attention of Amnesty judges,” said Soraya Salam, manager of Al Jazeera English Online. “They made it a priority to elevate the vulnerable voices of those who suffered at the hands of government forces. This award comes as our newsroom doubles down on original, in-depth coverage of underreported stories.”

The Amnesty Media Awards celebrate the best human rights journalism published and broadcast over the previous year across 11 categories, including investigations, broadcast news, features, photojournalism, student media, radio and podcasts, and best use of digital media.

Winners in other categories included ITV News, BBC Online, The Sunday Times Magazine and BBC Eye Publications.