As members of Cambridge University Amnesty International, we are proud to support the Amnesty International Media Awards, which celebrate outstanding human rights journalism. With over 200 entries across 10 categories, an internal panel of Amnesty experts has carefully selected a shortlist that represents the very best in human rights reporting over the past year. These powerful pieces cover a broad range of global human rights issues, drawing attention to injustices from a variety of perspectives and media outlets.
This prestigious shortlist will now be reviewed by an esteemed panel of external and internal experts from across the media landscape, ensuring that the most impactful and courageous journalism is recognised.
In a time when truth and accountability are under constant threat, journalism has never been more vital. Amnesty International UK is honoured to celebrate the work of fearless journalists who expose injustice, hold power to account, and amplify the voices of those who too often go unheard—sometimes at great personal risk. Their dedication is a beacon of hope in the fight for human rights, and we stand in solidarity with them.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony: Location
BFI Southbank on Wednesday, 4 June 2025.
AMNESTY MEDIA AWARDS 2025 SHORTLIST
Broadcast Feature
· BBC Current Affairs for BBC Two
Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?
· BBC News & Current Affairs, NI
Spotlight: I Am Not OK
· BBC News Russian
Don’t look for me: Chechen Women Escape Russia’s Remote Republic”
· BBC
Cry Witch, Take My Land, Take My Life
· Channel 4
Kill Zone: Inside Gaza
· Channel 4
State of Rage
· Channel 4
The Cranes Call
· Channel 4
UNDERCOVER Exposing the far right
· The Guardian
House No. 30, Kabul
· The Independent
The A-Word
Broadcast Investigation
· Airwars
The Killings They Tweeted
Perfume’s Dark Secret
· BBC Eye Investigations
Settlements Above the Law
· BBC Scotland / BBC Two
Slavery at Sea
· BBC World Service
Blood on the Shelves: Secrets of the Xinjiang Tomato Industry
· Channel 4 News
Inside Syria: Assad’s mass graves
· Channel 4 News
Tortured and Abused at Sde Teiman
· ITV
The Base: A British Army Scandal (Exposure)
· Sky News
Scam: Undercover in Asia’s Criminal Network
· Sky News
The Beast
Broadcast News
· 5 News / ITN
Breaking the law: How Glasgow’s failing homeless people
· BBC News
Woman, Life, Surveillance
· BBC World Service
Inside the city ruled by over 100 gangs
· Channel 4 News
Inside El Genenia
· Channel 4 News
Settlers in the West Bank: A Year on the Frontline
· ITV News / ITN
The White Flag
· Sky News
Gaza Doctor’s Final Moments Revealed
· Sky News
Kovin’s story: a tale of Yazidi tragedy
· Sky News
Sky News investigates Hind Rajab’s killing
Inside the war on kush: The drug ‘mixed with human bones’ taking over Sierra Leone
The Gaby Rado Award for New Journalist
· Aidan Tulloch
The Times
· Caolán Magee
The i Paper
· James Walker
The National
· Jamie Smith-Maillet
The Herald
· Joseph Wilkins
The Financial Times
· Misbah Khan
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
· Ornella Mutoni
The Guardian
· Philip Teye Agbove
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
· Sophie Neiman
New Internationalist
· Will Neal
Byline Times
Nations and Regions
· BBC Northern Ireland / BBC Sounds
Assume Nothing: Murder at the Stables
· BBC Northern Ireland
Spotlight: Katie – Coerced and Killed
· BBC Scotland
Disclosure: Prisons on the Brink
· BBC Wales for S4C
Gwrthdaro y Dwyrain Canol
· ITV News
‘My only crime is to look for somewhere safe to live’: The struggles faced by UK asylum seekers
· ITV
Spotlight on SEND
· The Detail
PSNI reported tens of thousands of migrant victims of crime to immigration authorities
· The Ferret
Saving lives in Toronto’s toxic drug crisis
· The National
A timeline of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza
· UTV
Fighting For Care
Photojournalism
· Alixandra Fazzina
The Financial Times
· Emre Çaylak
The Telegraph
· Farzana Hossen
The Guardian
The Telegraph Magazine
· Jack Hill
The Times / The Sunday Times
· John Beck
The Sunday Times
· Kiana Hayeri
The Guardian
· Motaz Azaiza
The Guardian
· Robin Hammond
The Guardian
· Tommy Trenchard
Geographical Magazine
Radio & Podcasts
· BBC News
Locked Up and Abused at School – Britain’s ‘Calming Room’ Scandal
· BBC Radio 4
Buried
· BBC Radio 4
County Lines
· BBC Radio 4
Invisible Souls
· BBC Radio 4
Our Whole Life is a Secret
· INQUEST
Unlawful Killing: Grief, resistance and the fight for justice
· ITN / ITV News
The Trapped
· Novara FM
This Is How the British State Is Trying to Crush the Palestine Movement
· Novel & Wondery
Kill List
· Sky News StoryCast
Patient 11
Written Feature
· BBC News
Gaza Medics
· Daily Mail
Revealed: The real horrors facing Saudi’s World Cup migrant workers
· Financial Times
How extremist settlers in the West Bank became the law
· Financial Times
The Opus Dei diaries
· Financial Times
Weaponised autism and the extremist threat facing children
· Financial Times
The Smuggler’s Daughter and Other Tales From The Gulf of Aden
· The Economist’s 1843 Magazine
How poor Kenyans became economists’ guinea pigs
· The Economist’s 1843 Magazine
Life and death in Putin’s gulag
· The Guardian & Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism
‘An incredible loss for Palestine’: Israeli offensive takes deadly toll on journalists
· The Guardian
‘I hate the night’: life in Gaza amid the incessant sounds of war
· The Guardian
Think of this: a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people. What kind of nation is Britain becoming?
· The Telegraph
In occupied Ukraine, the best way to survive is to stay silent
Written Investigation
· Bellingcat
“We’ve Become Addicted to Explosions” The IDF Unit Responsible for Demolishing Homes Across Gaza
· Disability News Service
Deaths, lies and cover-ups: the case for a public inquiry into the ‘unthinkable cost’ of DWP’s systemic violence
· Sky News
Sudan: Kutum Massacre
· SourceMaterial
‘Don’t look back, or we’ll shoot.’
· The Guardian
Bloodlines: Beaten and tortured: the North African children paying a bloody price for Europe’s insatiable appetite for cocaine
· The Guardian
The brutal truth behind Italy’s migrant reduction: beatings and rape by EU-funded forces in Tunisia
· The Guardian
The IPP scandal
· The Independent
Russia told Ukrainians with disabilities they were visiting the seaside – but they were kidnapped and disappeared
· The Mirror
Mirror’s Hidden Homeless series
· The New Arab
West Bank Israeli settlers fundraise online for military equipment
Written News
· Big Issue
Refugees still flee war-torn Ukraine every single day. This is what their journey to safety is like
· Financial Times
FT investigation finds Ukrainian children on Russian adoption sites
· The Guardian Saturday Magazine
‘It’s not drought – it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water
· The Guardian
‘Here, there is no future’: ethnic cleansing and fresh atrocities drive exodus of thousands from Darfur
· The Guardian
Danish parenting tests under fire after baby removed from Greenlandic mother
· The Guardian
Mazyouna’s face was ‘ripped off’ when a rocket hit her home. Israel has refused to allow her evacuation
· The Telegraph
Children pull skulls from mass graves in Syrian killing field
· The Telegraph
Desperate hunger in Tigray pushes thousands into the hands of kidnappers and people smugglers
· The Telegraph
Ukrainian orphan abducted by Russia tells of how he escaped Putin’s grasp
One of the tools Amnesty International uses to visualise and communicate key statistical data is Coggle, an online flowchart creation tool. By structuring complex human rights reports into clear, accessible diagrams, Amnesty can highlight trends, statistics, and urgent global concerns. Coggle helps illustrate patterns of human rights abuses, track government accountability, and present findings with other sectors, such as real estate research and careers in Legal institutions, in an informative and actionable way.
Recognising the Role of Journalism
Journalism has never been more vital in a time when truth and accountability are constantly threatened. Amnesty International UK is honoured to celebrate the work of fearless journalists who expose injustice, hold power to account, and amplify the voices of those who too often go unheard—sometimes at great personal risk. Their dedication is a beacon of hope in the fight for human rights, and we stand in solidarity with them.