ITV Win Prix Bayeux For War Reporting Second Year Running

An exclusive ITV News report on the devastation being wreaked by President Mugabe on his own people has earned ITV the prestigious Prix Bayeux for War Reporting for the second year in succession.
Correspondent Neil Connery, who was one of the first western journalists to report in detail on the systematic demolition of homes in Zimbabwe, collected the €7,600 prize in Normandy. Connery, who was Africa Correspondent when the report was filmed and transmitted in June last year, expressed delight at winning the prize, but said he was shocked by the extent of Mugabe's scorched earth policies.
"We were the first western journalists to see the scale of the devastation being caused by the systematic demolition of homes in Zimbabwe," Connery commented. "The UN estimates at least 700,000 were left homeless. Our reports were also shown on CNN and NBC and clearly depicted the suffering and brutality of what was going on. We even filmed Aids orphans whose orphanage was demolished by the bulldozers. Despite the risks faced by foreign journalists we filmed near to police and army and witnessed the destruction first hand."
The ITN report was filmed by camera operators Cyrus Nhara and Sara, and edited by Andy Rex. It beat stiff competition from the BBC and CNN to take the top TV prize.
Cyrus and Sara previously won the 2005 Rory Peck Sony Impact award for their filming of this report.
The Prix Bayeux was won last year by ITV News Middle East correspondent Julian Manyon for his report from the school massacre at Beslan, in Russia.
The awards were launched in 1994 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the landing of allied troops on Normandybeaches.
On Saturday, the city of Bayeux and the journalist group Reporters Without Borders also inaugurated a memorial to about 2,000 journalists killed on assignment since 1944.
(DS/SP)