Frontline Club Journalism Awards 2007
Right from the very beginning the Frontline Club broke all conventions. From cameraman Vaughan Smith’s late 80’s visions of flying over the Afghan frontline in a Microlite to shacking up in Osama Bin Laden’s residence in Kabul. The founders of the Frontline Club didn’t just shirk convention, they booted it out the door. With those ideals firmly in mind, and this being a Friday night, we choose this moment to announce the winners of the inaugural Frontline Club Journalism Awards. There are two awards, there are no finalists, there are only winners. The Frontline Club Award will be given annually and the Frontline Memorial Tribute occasionally. The Frontline Memorial Tribute is dedicated to the memory of Frontline Club members killed in the course of their work. The judges are drawn from the club’s 1000+ membership and currently comprise of Jon Lee Anderson, Patrick Cockburn, Carlotta Gall, Gary Knight, Christina Lamb, Allan Little, Anthony Loyd, Seamus Murphy and Vaughan Smith (Chair) The winner of the 2007 Frontline Club Award is currently in Afghanistan for The Guardian newspaper,
2007 Frontline Club Award Freelance photojournalist John D. McHugh wins the Frontline Club Award for his work in Afghanistan in 2007. McHugh financed his own trip and worked as a freelance for AFP, the Sunday Times, Newsweek as well as filing to his personal blog. He later sold images to FHM magazine and other outlets. McHugh was shot by a Taliban fighter on May 14, 2007 after spending five weeks in country embedded with the 10th Mountain Division in northeastern Afghanistan. He very nearly died. He has returned to Afghanistan on two occasions most recently on a multimedia commission for The Guardian newspaper.
The winner of The Frontline Memorial Tribute is Brent Stirton,
2007 Frontline Memorial Tribute Brent Stirton wins the inaugural Frontline Memorial Tribute Award for his photographic essay on gorillas in the eastern part of The Democratic Republic of Congo. The judges focussed on one image in particular (no. 33 from this series link http://www.brentstirton.com/feature-gorillas.php). The image is of a dead male gorilla, one of four found in the forests in Virunga and transported by around 16 rangers.
The awards ceremony will take place at the Frontline Club in London on 20 June. All proceeds from the event will go to the Fixers Fund – set up by the Frontline Club Charitable Trust to promote responsibility in the news industry for the welfare of fixers and translators. The Fixers Fund was inspired by the story of Ajmal Naqshbandi.