Frontline Awards 2009

Ahead of this year’s Frontline Awards on 25 November here is a quick recap of last year’s winners.

Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor in chief of the Sri Lankan newspaper The Sunday Leader who was murdered on 8 January 2009 was posthumous awarded the Frontline Memorial Award. Wickrematunge was one of Sri Lanka’s most courageous and provocative independent journalists who paid the ultimate price for his dedication to his profession. Anticipating his own death, he wrote an editorial, which was published three days after he was shot dead, blaming the government and predicting accurately the horrific events in his country. He wrote, “Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last”.

Emilio Morenatti was awarded the Frontline Club Award for Journalism. Morenatti began his career as a photojournalist in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain working for a local newspaper. In 1992 he joined Agencia EFE, the leading Spanish news agency where he covered national and international events. In 2003 he travelled to Afghanistan as a correspondent for AP to cover the war and the fall of the Taliban. He was sent to the Middle East in 2005 to cover the conflict, whilst in Gaza City he was kidnapped by gunmen before being released unharmed a day later. He is currently based in Pakistan and covers Central Asia for AP.

You can now watch the replay of the event here: