Double Accolade for Sky News at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival
London, 15th June 2012: Last night Sky News was awarded two prestigious Golden Nymph Awards at the 52nd Monte-Carlo Television Festival.
Sky won Best 24-Hour News Programme for The Fall of Tripoli, which saw Alex Crawford and team riding into Tripoli on the back of a rebel convoy truck. Alex was the first reporter to broadcast live from Green Square as rebel forces took over the city; her reports were broadcast to the world via a manually operated satellite signal and a camera plugged into a cigarette lighter charger.
Sky News also won Best TV News Item for Stuart Ramsay’s report, Inside Syria. Stuart gained rare access to the heart of the uprising and spent four days undercover, filming life in the city of Homs. This was the first independently shot footage to be filmed in the city which verified that innocent civilians were under siege from Assad’s security forces.
Sarah Whitehead, Head of Foreign News commented “Covering the events in Syria is without doubt the greatest challenge for journalists around the world at the moment. Stuart Ramsay's exceptional film, shot in Homs by Martin Smith, showed horrifying pictures of a 6 year old boy under sniper fire as he raced home with the family's bread. This was some of the first independent evidence that ordinary Syrians were being shot at on the streets where they live. It took a huge amount of work, tenacity, bravery and determination to gather the material that went into this film - so I'm delighted that it's received the recognition of the Monte Carlo jury.
And Alex Crawford's exceptional live reporting from the rebel convoy as it drove into Tripoli in August was one of the most momentous pieces of news coverage of last year. I'm incredibly proud of what Alex and the team managed to achieve through their sheer determination to follow the story, and to continue to report the extraordinary and unfolding events around them.”
Earlier this year Alex Crawford was named RTS Journalist of the Year for a record fourth time.
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Notes to editor
For further information please contact Lucy Ellison on lucy.ellison@bskyb.com or call 07855 851617
About Sky News
Since its launch in 1989, Sky News has established itself as an unrivalled, world class breaking news service with a spirit of innovation and a fresh approach to news broadcasting.
As the UK's first dedicated 24-hour news channel, Sky News has built a deserved reputation for being the first to break major news, and is renowned for the speed of its coverage and flexibility of reporting news live across all its platforms - TV, mobile, online, radio and iPad.
Sky News has increased global reach to almost 103m homes, surpassing the 100m mark for the first time. This is the effect of acquiring FTA capacity on Thor, meaning an increased reach in Scandinavia and CEE, more homes now capable of receiving FTA channels on the Astra platform and encouraging operators to move Sky News to the basic packs.
In addition to its status as one of Europe's leading 24-hour news channels, viewers can access exclusive content on its award-winning website skynews.com and real-time updates, live video and rich graphics on the Sky News for iPad. A dedicated Twitter feed (@skynewsbreak) and Facebook fan page keeps web-users up-to-date with breaking news. Its custom-built iPhone app, named in Apple’s top ten free apps of all-time, delivers breaking news by text, picture and video, and has been downloaded over two and a half million times.
In 2009, Sky News Radio became the sole provider of national and international news to all commercial stations in the UK when it took over the contract to supply IRN stations, in addition to its existing clients. It now reaches 34 million listeners a week on over 300 commercial stations including Magic FM, Classic FM and Real Radio.
Sky News’ success and quality of coverage continues to be recognised by its viewers and the industry. The 2012 RTS awards saw Sky News awarded multiple accolades including Journalist of the Year for Alex Crawford – for a record fourth time; Presenter of the Year for Anna Botting; and wins in the Home News category for Sky’s coverage of the UK riots and the International News category for their coverage in Libya. Sky News also scooped two Golden Nymph awards at the 51st Monte-Carlo Television Festival for its dramatic coverage of the Arab Spring.
