Real 21 presents media awards for the fifth time
For the fifth time, Real 21 has awarded the media prize for high-quality media contributions on topics of global development. Tilman Lingner wins this year's prize with his documentary "Fight for the Land - Swiss Settlers in Chile".
Once again this year, the Real 21 jury of experts nominated five journalistic contributions that appeared in a Swiss-German medium. Now three of them have been awarded prizes. First place is endowed with 8,000 Swiss francs, the second with 4,000 Swiss francs and the third receives 3,000 Swiss francs.
Due to the corona virus, no award ceremony took place on site. The laudatios for the respective winners were recorded on video.
Reports from Chile, Mongolia and Tanzania
"Without bias and without taking sides, the author introduces us to the very different worlds and ways of life of the Swiss farmers involved in the land conflict and the Mapuche people," said the jury of the Real 21 Media Award, explaining the choice of Tilman Lingner. "The film is visually powerful and allows us to understand an intricate problem that began over 100 years ago and is still unresolved today." Lingner's reportage was broadcast in the program DOK of the Swiss television SRF and is still available in the media library.
Second place went to journalist Martin Theis and photographer Sascha Montag with the reportage "A Life in Extremes," which appeared in Surprise magazine. The reportage describes the story of a security guard in the capital of Mongolia who would have preferred to stay in the countryside. The author looks closely without judging. The watchman "stands for the fate of thousands and thousands of small farmers and nomadic herders in the global south. Climate change is robbing them of their livelihoods and forcing them into the cities."
The third prize goes jointly to Astrid Benölken, Hannah Lesch, Björn Rohwer and Tobias Zuttmann for the reportage "Transsexuality in Tanzania," which appeared in Team Magazine. The reportage is a touching portrait of a young transsexual, describing an impressive life story. It not only shocks and touches, it also gives hope, because the young transsexual did not let himself be broken even by a dramatic stay in prison. It rather awakened his defiance and pride and made him an activist who stands up for the transsexuals in his country.
The association "Real 21 - Understanding the World" was founded in May 2015. It is jointly supported by MAZ - The Swiss School of Journalism and Alliance Sud, the think tank of Swiss development organizations. On the one hand, it supports and promotes reporting in German-speaking Swiss media on topics of global development with a media fund. On the other hand, the media prize is awarded annually to three outstanding journalistic works. The media awards and the media fund are financed by contributions from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
