Citation Video from the Chairperson of the Jury

In 2024, French video journalists Getti Marianne and Nabat Agnes infiltrated the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia to meet face-to-face with women suffering from the indelible scars of war.

The Tigray War began on November 2, 2020, when a coalition of Ethiopian government forces, Eritrean government forces, and the Amhara Fano militia from the northwestern Amhara region invaded Ethiopia's northern Tigray region. The two-year war, which lasted until November 3, 2022, was one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century, with an estimated 600,000 fatalities. Despite this, it has received little attention due to the Ethiopian government's strict media control aimed at creating a "war without witnesses," and the limited global attention paid to Africa.

The long history of repeated conflicts and confrontations among various ethnic groups in Ethiopia, Africa's most populous nation, and its neighboring countries, has been compounded by political shifts in Ethiopia's modern history, amplifying inter-ethnic hatred and desires for revenge. The resulting Tigray War became a “21st-century African Holocaust" with the declared goal of ethnic cleansing.

To ethnically cleanse the Tigrayans, who make up 6% of Ethiopia's population, the anti-Tigray coalition forces committed massacres, indiscriminately killing not only Tigrayan forces and militias but also civilians. The ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans, led by the anti-Tigray coalition under Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, did not stop at massacres but extended to crimes against humanity, with over 120,000 women-one-tenth of the female Tigrayan population-subjected to sexual violence.

Sexual assaults, even termed "uterine massacres," were perpetrated against Tigrayan women to fundamentally prevent theim from giving birth and rebuilding their communities. The sexual violence inflicted on Tigrayan women during the war became a "silent weapon," used under systematic orders from the anti-Tigray coalition.

Amidst ongoing and strict media censorship, Getti Marianne and Nabat Agnes gave up on obtaining visas through the Ethiopian government. They secretly entered Tigray, carrying only minimal reporting equipment and a mobile phone, to capture the voices and stories of female survivors of sexual war crimes.

The two video journalists met with a female activist and a public hospital nurse who are working to help thousands of survivors of sexual war crimes. Through them, they documented and exposed the specific nature and scale of the "sexual war crimes" of the Tigray War, which had been largely unknown.

Through their life-risking investigation, the journalists were the first to capture and reveal to the world video evidence of the brutal war crimes, including objects used in the uterine massacres such as razor blades, nails, shell casings, and notes expressing hatred for Tigrayan women.

Furthermore, the journalists met directly with survivors, exposing the harsh reality that these women, suffering from physical and psychological trauma, are not comforted or healed by their families and society. Moreover, they are ostracized, enduring a double burden of pain and discrimination.

Released in November 2024 on ARTE TV, this report delivered an urgent message that the world must fully grasp the truth of these inhumane sexual war crimes. It called for international solidarity and support to embrace and heal the hurt and pain of the survivors.

The jury of the 2025 Hinzpeter Awards praised the report for its significant contribution to bringing global attention to the sexual war crimes of the Tigray War and the ongoing physical, psychological, and social suffering of the female survivors, which had been largely unknown. They also expressed their expectation that by documenting and reporting the concrete evidence of these war crimes for the first time, the report will play a crucial role in clarifying the truth, holding perpetrators accountable, and building public opinion for international attention and support for the victims.

The jury noted that the actions of the two video journalists, who risked their lives to enter the inaccessible Tigray region and report the testimonies of survivors, resonate with the journalistic spirit of Jürgen Hinzpeter, who covered the Gwangju Uprising in May 1980. Therefore, they selected the project as the winner of the "World at a Crossroads Award“, the grand prize of the 2025 Hinzpeter Awards.

Park Hyun-chul (SBS), Lim Chae-woong (MBN), Park Jae-hyun (JTBC), and Kim Woo-sung (Arirang TV)

At 10:23 PM on December 3rd of last year, when President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, all video journalists accredited to the National Assembly stopped their schedules and headed to the Assembly. They climbed over the walls and evaded the police blockade, watching their colleagues being captured in the process. Some managed to enter through open areas with the help of police officers or martial law troops. Inside they entered their office, grabbed their cameras and equipment, and shared the situation and routes via a group chat.

Although the National Assembly Video Journalists were divided into three press pools, they decided on joint coverage in this unprecedented situation where democracy was under threat. The footage was transmitted simultaneously by opening the transmission networks of all pool groups, and by using mobile equipment, they swiftly delivered the news of the martial law situation to the public. Of the 46 journalists, 30 gathered and dispersed, inside and outside the main building of the National Assembly to document the night of the martial law.

At 11:00 PM, Martial Law Command Proclamation No.1 threatened freedom of the press by specifying the media control and a ban on fake news. Reporting from the scene of the martial law declaration required the courage to risk punishment and the danger of bloodshed. However, the journalists overcame their fear as they witnessed citizens, parliamentary aides, and their own colleagues standing up to the martial law troops. Anticipating that troops would try to enter the main building, some journalists went inside while some of them had to climb ropes with the help of aides.

Journalists outside the building felt extreme fear as they faced military helicopters and armed martial law troops, but they did not put their cameras down driven by a sense of mission that every moment they record will become history. They left records despite the interference and threats from the troops, which later became crucial data for analyzing the incident.

After midnight on December 4th, as the martial law troops' attempts to enter the main building intensified, the journalists scattered to capture footage of the citizens and aides. With the National Assembly Television (NATV) unable to air, only one video journalist remained in the main chamber, broadcasting the tense situation live to the entire world. Their footage was delivered to the world in real-time via TV, YouTube, and social media.

At 1:03 AM, the resolution to lift martial law was passed with the unanimous consent of all 190 attending lawmakers. The news was instantly relayed inside and outside the Assembly, and the martial law troops began to withdraw swiftly. Outside the Assembly, in addition to the video journalists, reporters and other news crews from broadcasters also reported on the situation through the pool feed. The Korean Video Journalists Association collected the names of video journalists who covered the Assembly that day, naming them "The 48 Video Journalists Who Defended Democracy" and awarding them the Grand Prize at the 38th Korean Video Journalists Awards.

The jury highly praised the journalistic spirit of the Korean video journalists who, with great courage, documented the crisis of democracy from the ground during a coup d'état disguised as 'martial law' and shared it with the world. They gave high marks for how their swift on-site reporting informed not only South Korea but also the entire world about the crisis of democracy and the potential collapse of a free society. This allowed citizens, politicians, and even the soldiers mobilized for the coup to correctly perceive, judge, and respond to the urgent democratic crisis.

Furthermore, the jury decided on them as the recipients of the Award for News because they did not repeat the painful history of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980, and fulfilled their duty as deliverers of truth and recorders of history.

“An unflinching look at Haiti’s collapse into lawlessness, told through rare access to key figures and despite the risks in a gang-dominated environment. This outstanding work illuminates an overlooked conflict, produced under extreme personal danger.”

This immersive documentary pulls viewers deep into the heart of a collapsed city, Port-au-Prince, exposing the grim reality of the Haitian capital, where gangs control over 80% of the territory. The report was produced in May 2024, with the team infiltrating the area by helicopter.

With minimal equipment and personnel, the journalists navigated inaccessible zones on motorcycles, capturing shootouts, looting, gang-controlled territories, and displacement camps on camera. After weeks of negotiations, they successfully secured face-to-face interviews with gang leaders, who confessed to murders, rapes, kidnappings, and their connections to political and business figures. The production team also conducted individual interviews with dozens of survivors of gang violence and sexual assault, gathering their vivid testimonies.

Beyond simply documenting the violence and tragedy, the film explores the lives of Haitian citizens seeking hope amid despair, revealing their unextinguished resilience. By following a sculptor and a painter from gang-held neighborhoods, the documentary shines a light on the hidden strength of the Haitian art community as they work to restore art in the ruins.

Following its release, the documentary garnered over 6.3 million views on YouTube and was broadcast on France 24 in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic, reaching an audience of over 100 million worldwide. The footage of gang leaders confessing to their crimes was cited as evidence in a UN Panel of Experts report, drawing significant international attention.

The film also received widespread media attention. Time magazine published an article written by Catherine Norris Trent, and the French publication Télérama praised the documentary as "an essential and powerful work." It was also featured and cited in various other media outlets, including an in-depth interview with the French public radio station France Culture.

“Investigative evidence of alleged war crimes by the Israeli army, revealed through compelling testimonies and medical reports indicating precision-targeted shootings of children. The devastating impact is harrowing, yet moments of resilience - such as a girl’s struggle back to life after injury - provide glimmers of hope.”

The film opens with a scene of four-year-old Mira al-Darrini being shot in the head while playing outside her family's tent. Collaborating with a local crew to film in a region where international media access was blocked, the production team presents the possibility: that the recurring gunshot wounds in children are not accidental collateral damage from crossfire, but the result of deliberate, targeted shootings. They support this claim with medical imaging, patient records, and the testimonies of 20 American volunteer doctors. The team also presents various forms of evidence, including footage from social media and CCTV, to substantiate their case.

One of Mira's doctors states that the pattern of gunshot wounds concentrated on the head and chest is difficult to see as coincidental. The scene where the doctor, after completing his service, returns to Gaza to reunite with a recovering Mira, brings tears to the audience's eyes. To appeal for an end to these horrific war crimes, the team visits the U.S. Congress but receives little response, leading them to express a sense of powerlessness: “Taxpayer money is being used for a massacre.”

The documentary also exposes the fact that the Leahy Law, a U.S. human rights law, has never been applied to Israel. Through interviews with the creator of the law and a 32-year veteran of the State Department, the film reveals this loophole, culminating in the interviewee's confession that they failed to meet their moral responsibility.

The on-the-ground reporting process was also fraught with challenges. The crew was repeatedly forced to stop filming amidst air raid sirens. Mira’s mother, who was attacked on three separate occasions, ultimately lost her leg. This documentary was also adapted into a radio program for NPR’s 'Reveal,' broadcasting across the United States. Screenings at major institutions such as those in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and the Columbia Journalism School have sparked vigorous debate on the issues of accountability and impunity among journalists, policymakers, human rights advocates, and students.

*The Yoo Young-gil Award was established to honor the achievements of video journalist Yoo Young-gil, who reported on the tragedies of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980 as part of CBS. Yoo Young-gil is also famous for his work as the Director of Photography for the films ‘Christmas in August’ and ‘A Petal.’

The Tiananmen Square Incident and Tank Man: The Video Journalists Who Broadcast China's Last Citizen Revolution to the World and Revealed an Unbreakable Symbol of Democracy.

Cynde Strand, Jonathan Schaer, Willie Phua

Since 1978, the decade-long Reform and Opening-up policy pursued by Deng Xiaoping brought about the economic achievement of rapidly returning China to the global economic system after its withdrawal following the socialist revolution. However, this was accompanied by political and economic inequality and crises, including the corruption of power and inflation.

The death of former Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang on April 15, 1989-who had been ousted for defending the public's calls for reform-triggered large-scale protests by students and intellectuals demanding greater political freedom, the eradication of power-based corruption, and the resolution of economic inequality. On April 17, a rally by university students at Peking University to mourn Hu Yaobang's death was followed by a march to Tiananmen Square. This evolved into the "Tiananmen Square Incident," which continued until June 4, drawing in not only students and intellectuals who had long demanded reform and democratization from the government, but also ordinary citizens and public officials.

As the scale of the pro-reform and pro-democracy protests grew and showed signs of spreading nationwide, international public opinion and political pressure for a resolution mounted. This situation, combined with the collapse of the military dictatorship and the progress of democratization in neighboring South Korea following the 1987 citizen uprising, as well as the rapid changes in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc where one-party communist rule was crumbling under reform policies, instilled a deep sense of crisis among the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.

Finally, the Chinese government declared martial law in the Beijing area on May 20. Between the night of June 3 and the dawn of June 4, it deployed government troops armed with firearms, tanks, and armored vehicles into Tiananmen Square to violently disperse the protestors. The crackdown resulted in massive casualties; Chinese authorities officially reported 41 deaths and 7,000 injuries, while foreign press and international relief organizations estimated nearly 1,000 deaths and up to 30,000 injuries. China's last citizen revolution of the 20th century, demanding reform and democracy, came to an end as an unfinished revolution before the guns and tanks of soldiers. On the afternoon of June 5, the day after the protestors in Tiananmen Square were violently suppressed, an unexpected event occurred. At a moment when hundreds of thousands of citizens had been driven out, and the air was thick with the fear and threat of armed soldiers and tanks, a young man appeared before a column of advancing tanks, blocking their path with his entire body. To a world that believed the Chinese citizens' resistance for reform and democracy could no longer continue in the face of guns and tanks, the defiance of this young man, known as "Tank Man," was a reaffirmation of the unbreakable will of the Chinese people for democracy. It imprinted a powerful message upon the world: the struggle for Chinese democracy would overcome the government's tyranny and rise again.

The powerful image of "Tank Man," often selected as one of the ten most iconic events of the 20th century, is remembered beyond China as an icon of resistance, representing the free will of citizens and the pursuit of democracy against unjust power and oppression.

① Cynde Strand, CNN Video Journalist

- Sharing the Truth Recorded in the Midst of the Tiananmen Incident with the World -

After graduating from university and studying in China, Cynde Strand began working as a video journalist in 1987 when the nascent 24-hour news channel CNN established its Beijing bureau. On the night of April 17, 1989, she was on the scene to cover Beijing university students holding a memorial for Hu Yaobang and marching to Tiananmen Square, filing the first video report on the events by an American media outlet. CNN's broadcast of China's grave situation to the world captured the attention of not only the United States but the entire globe. As a recorder and witness of history, Cynde Strand covered the entire course of the Tiananmen Square Incident from the heart of the events.

Notably, Cynde and the CNN crew had received permission from Chinese authorities to broadcast the historic visit of Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev and the Sino-Soviet summit, scheduled for May 15, live to the world. Instead of a meeting between two world leaders, they ended up delivering vivid, live coverage of the Chinese citizen uprising unfolding in Tiananmen Square, the very center of Beijing.

The truth of Tiananmen, delivered to the world through Cynde Strand's video reports and live broadcasts, made the indifferent Bush administration and governments and citizens worldwide realize the seriousness of the situation. This created public opinion that the international community must engage in active diplomatic efforts to prevent a catastrophic outcome. Furthermore, after the bloody crackdown by Chinese authorities on June 4, as arrests and executions of protest leaders followed, her reporting spurred international concern and campaigns to save them.

On the night of June 3, 1989, as young students and citizens fell, bleeding from soldiers' bullets, and many were killed and injured by charging armored vehicles and tanks, Cynde Strand did not leave Tiananmen Square. She remained to record history until the situation concluded on June 4. She later recounted her feelings at the time: "This is the role of a journalist. We are where we are supposed to be, witnessing history. If we are not on the scene of the news, a true record will not exist."

② Jonathan Schaer, CNN Video Journalist

- Documenting "Tank Man," the Symbol of the Unbreakable Democratic Will of Chinese Citizens -

As the protests in Tiananmen Square became prolonged and drew global attention, media outlets from various countries dispatched large teams of journalists in late May and early June. Jonathan Schaer, a video journalist from CNN's Atlanta headquarters, was also sent to document the events from the ground. However, as the massive military crackdown began on June 4 and soldiers and tanks began firing at the press corps, he and his colleagues relocated to a hotel overlooking Tiananmen Square. On the afternoon of June 5, an astonishing scene unfolded before his eyes. A man approached a column of tanks crossing the square, and Schaer instinctively focused his camera on him.

The man stood in front of the tanks, blocking them. The tanks tried to go around him, but he moved to block them again. Schaer captured this breathtaking moment in vivid footage. With Chinese public security forces closing in to confiscate the original recording, which he had filmed at the risk of being shot, Schaer and the CNN crew escaped the hotel to protect their footage. From a new hideout, they used video capture and transmission equipment to send still frames of the footage over a telephone line.

In a precarious and dangerous situation where it took 45 minutes to capture and transmit a single video frame, the image files sent by Schaer were broadcast every hour as breaking news by CNN to the entire world. Furthermore, they succeeded in smuggling the original videotape to CNN's Hong Kong bureau through a tourist they enlisted. Thus, the courage and will of "Tank Man," who resisted the force and oppression of the Chinese government with his entire body in the middle of Tiananmen Square on June 5, were delivered to living rooms around the world.

③ Wille Phua, Former ABC (Australia) Video Journalist

- The Legendary Video Journalist Who Recorded Asia's Crises and Change, Bringing "Tank Man" to Light -

Willie Phua was a legendary video journalist who documented the turbulent periods of modern Asian history. As part of ABC News (Australia), he covered major conflicts and democratization movements across Asia from the front lines, including the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge regime, and the fall of the Marcos regime in the Philippines. On June 5, 1989, Wille was filming a column of People's Liberation Army tanks from a 10th-floor balcony of the Beijing Hotel. Suddenly, a citizen holding shopping bags stood alone before the tanks, halting their procession. Holding his breath, Wille captured the scene. The citizen climbed onto a tank and confronted its crew. When the tank moved, he ran in front of it again to block its path. Eventually, a few onlookers pulled him away from danger, and he disappeared from the frame.

Despite the Chinese authorities' blockade of satellite transmissions, this footage was delivered through a difficult route to the Hong Kong bureau of Visnews, a specialized news video agency. From there, his video was distributed to the world through ABC Australia, as well as Visnews, the BBC, and NBC, with whom he had joint coverage agreements.

The "Tank Man" documented and reported by Willie Phua was seared into the global consciousness as a "symbol of resistance," showing that although the defiance of the citizens who filled Tiananmen Square was crushed by military force, their will and desire for democracy were never broken and would burn again. Sadly, Wille Phua's eventful life as a video journalist ended on December 27, 2024, at the age of 94. The footage he captured of "Tank Man" remains a powerful image that vividly conveys the Tiananmen Square Incident and the Chinese citizens' demands for reform and democracy to viewers not only in Australia but around the world.

4) Reason for Award Selection

Despite the extreme chaos following the armed crackdown, the life-threatening danger from the military, and the risk of arrest and detention for their reporting, these three video journalists upheld the truth by remaining on the scene and capturing footage. In doing so, they embodied the same journalistic spirit as Jürgen Hinzpeter, whose work and ideals were aligned with telling the truth of the isolated and persecuted "May Gwangju" by reporting directly from the scene of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. Furthermore, in the face of reporting restrictions, censorship, and the confiscation of original materials, their efforts to broadcast the truth to the world-using live reports and emergency plans to transmit their footage-were a realization of press freedom, and the resulting work became a crucial record for understanding the truth of the Tiananmen Incident. This is in the same context as how the footage of Hinzpeter and Yoo Young-gil transcended the 1980s and, during the December 3rd martial law, served as a historical memory for both citizens and soldiers, reminding them of the tragedy of Gwangju and providing a crucial impetus to overcome the coup by ensuring that painful history would not be repeated.

The video reports of these journalists will be remembered as a vital historical memory that will contribute to China's future democratic development and change. Moreover, the Tiananmen Square Incident, broadcast live to the world in 1989, brought about a significant change in media history. Through the globalization and synchronization of news issues, it allowed people worldwide to view a specific, local event from a universal human perspective, enabling the rapid formation and spread of international public opinion. The efforts to enhance live news broadcasting also spurred technological advancements in reporting equipment and led to the globalization of regional news, such as war and conflict reporting, marking its great significance in the history of journalism.