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Presented virtually for the first time ever, the World Press Photo Foundation delivered its 63rd annual awards this week from Amsterdam. As usual, the top awards went to stunning examples of photojournalism. This craft continues to offer a shining light for us all.
Photo of the Year was awarded to AFP photojournalist Yasuyoshi Chiba for a stunning portrait of peaceful protest. A young man was standing before a crowd reciting poetry backlit only by the light of mobile phones. The photo was taken last June in Khartoum, Sudan, during tensions before the military government ceded some control to civilian representatives. "This moment was the only peaceful group protest I encountered during my stay, and I felt touched by the undefeated solidarity of their revolution," said Mr. Chiba in an AFP statement.
Protests - and news photos of them - resonated with the award juries. Photos of Hong Kong protests by Danish photographer Nicolas Asfouri, also with AFP, were awarded first prize in the General News - Stories category. One in that series showed ranks of identically dressed, mask-wearing school girls crossing a street holding hands as part of the demonstrations.
Not among the news photos receiving this year’s awards but attracting timely attention was one of protestors at the Ohio (US) Statehouse, taken earlier this week and published by the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch (April 13). Staff photographer Joshua Bickel snapped the photo of several people behind glass doors, one wearing the red Trump campaign hat, mouths agape, eyes flaring, raging at lockdown measures ordered by the state governor and other affronts, real or perceived. The photo, as we now say, went viral, compared with scenes from zombie movies.
“I did my job,” said Mr. Bickel to online portal Slate (April 16). “I needed a picture, I turned it in, and it’s been a little overwhelming to see it go the way it did. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t sleep very well last night.”
AP photographer Nick Ut won the World Press Photo of the Year award in 1973 for the “Napalm Girl” photo, formally “The Terror of War.” Without the internet, it was reprinted by nearly every newspaper in the world. Some claim the image changed public perception of war in Vietnam.
The business and financial press has a long, stellar tradition. Reporting can be dry and colorless; after all these are not the sports pages. The Economist and the Financial Times are revered for blunt, independent coverage demanded by C-suite readers. Around the world there are others. The group is thinning.
Vedomosti has covered Russia’s rough and tumble business sphere for more than 20 years. Founded by Sanoma of Finland, Dow Jones and Pearson (Financial Times), its reporting has always been crisp and direct. When the founders were booted out of the country under restrictive foreign ownership laws in 2015 there was anxiety about a change in direction. It didn’t happen.
An ominous turn was noted in March when owner Demyan Kudryavtsev and two partners sold the Vedomosti publishing company BNM to Arbat Capital owner Alexei Golubovich and Konstantin Zyatkov, publisher of “patriotic” tabloid Nasha Versiya. Andrey Shmarov was named acting editor-in-chief, pending approval of the yet independent editorial board. He replaced Ilya Bulavinov who joined Vedomosti in 2017 after the resignation of long-serving editor-in-chief Tatyana Lysova. (See more about media in the Russian Federation here)
Over this past weekend an op-ed from columnist Konstantin Sonin was published on Vedomosti’s online edition. It disappeared two hours later, reported independent news portal Meduza (April 13), ordered by Mr. Shmarov. The op-ed criticized oil and gas giant Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin and has since appeared on various news and social media portals. Earlier Mr. Shmarov changed the headline on a story about Rosneft. Readers familiar with commodity markets know this has not been a good week for oil prices.
The Vedomosti editorial staff were not happy with Mr. Shmarov’s appointment. His first newsroom meeting was peppered with admissions that he had never read Vedomosti and was not familiar with its editorial guidelines. In a letter to the new owners, quoted by Meduza ( March 31), they warned that “the newsroom is in chaos, advertisers are in shock, and subscribers are demanding refunds for paid subscriptions.”
The perfect antidote for lockdown anxiety might be Slow TV. And Swedish public television’s award winning Big Moose Walk (Den stora älgvandringen) is back on the air. The 24/7 live production follows, quite naturally, wildlife making their annual end of winter journey along the Angerman River, in northern Sweden.
The show won the Swedish television Kristallen award for innovator of the year for its inaugural presentation last year. It was such a success SVT added a few days to the live broadcast. The broadcaster estimated about 3 million people tuned-in for parts. (See more about media in Sweden here)
The reprise is even bigger, offering more cameras. It can be viewed by all through May 4th on SVT Play. Weekly summaries are available for those preferring highlights. Big Moose Walk was briefly interrupted Monday (April 13) by a power outage brought on by a major thunderstorm. An emergency power supply was called in by the on-the-scene crew.
Slow TV developed in Scandinavia over the last decade. Norwegian public TV NRK produced a 134 hour marathon of a cruise ship traversing the coastline in 2011. Other variations followed, like the National Wood Night, featuring a live burning fireplace. Popping up in Australia for the Easter holiday was The Chocolate Factory from SBS and Mint Productions, a 3 hour journey from sugar cane to chocolate bunny. Yumm.
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