Channel 4 News wins International Emmy for News

Channel 4 News has won its third International Emmy for News in five years for its coverage of the Syrian civil war.

The award was presented on Thursday night for Inside Aleppo – Battle for Aleppo at a ceremony in New York City.

Channel 4 News, which is produced by ITN, featured a series of reports in August 2016 from inside the Syrian city during the most brutal battle of the country’s civil war.

The material, shot by Syrian film-maker Waad Al-Kateab (pictured above), featured both unprecedented documentation of the turmoil in the city’s final hospital, as well as the human stories of those who, via choice, or lack of it, had stayed during the siege.

Waad Al-Kateab, 26, had lived in Syria her whole life and was inside the besieged the city with unrivalled access to the horror, chaos and civilian tragedy unfolding.

She worked with Channel 4 News’ foreign team of producers and reporters to make the series of award-winning films.

Waad was heavily pregnant at the time of filming the material and also caring for a young child. She and her family left the country in December last year after the siege had ended.

Her reports included A New Life in a Deadly City, which shows the heroic struggles by the city’s doctors to save a new-born baby after a barrel bomb attack, as well as The Last Gardener of Aleppo, a portrait of a man trying to preserve beauty amid the chaos around him. Waad’s reports had over half a billion views online – believed to be the most watched reports of any in the civil war.

Waad has also been honoured with the Royal Television Society (RTS) Young Journalist of the Year, the RTS Camera Operator of the Year, The British Journalism Award for Foreign Affairs Journalism, and two Amnesty International Awards.

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Channel 4 News Editor Ben De Pear said: “Waad Al-Kateab work has been rightly recognised with the highest accolade in international news. We are honoured to have worked with such a brave and brilliant woman, who whilst heavily pregnant gave the world a searing and visceral insight into the hell of Aleppo.

“We are also delighted to win this award – for which scores of international broadcasters enter every year – for a record third year out of five for our Syria coverage.

“The leadership and production abilities of Nevine Mabro and her team have nurtured the talents of outstanding film makers in the most dangerous places on earth, and our reporters, camera people and producers have also provided outstanding and classy journalism. It’s a ringing endorsement of the model and mission of Channel 4 News and we could not be prouder.”

Exposure: Saudi Arabia Uncovered won the Emmy for Current Affairs. Bruce L. Paisner, President and CEO of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, said of both awards: “A free and committed press corps is the most important bulwark against repression and tyranny. We congratulate the winning reporters, cameramen, and crews behind these outstanding reports for their courageous journalism.”

Channel 4 News also won the International News Emmy in 2013 for its film The Horror of Homs, and again in 2014, for Syria’s Descent, another series of films about the country’s civil war.

ITN Productions won an Emmy this year for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary for Children of Syria, a documentary by Marcel Mettelsiefen.

Marcel’s relationship with ITN began in Channel 4 News. His Children on the Frontline, a joint production between Channel 4 and ITN Productions, won the International Emmy for Current Affairs in 2015.

Marcel’s first short film on the Syria crisis, Agony in Aleppo, featured on Channel 4 News in 2013 and formed part of the programme’s winning 2014 entry.