Al Jazeera Digital wins gold and silver at New York Festivals

Podcasts and video series for Al Jazeera Digital scooped gold and silver awards at the 2023 New York Festivals’ (NYF) Radio and NYF TV & Film Awards, announced in separate ceremonies this week in New York.

The New York Festivals recognised Al Jazeera Digital’s diverse podcast, online video and short documentary content.

News and current affairs podcast, The Take, won a gold medal in the Best Ongoing News Coverage category for its coverage of the war in Ukraine, a silver medal in the News Podcast (series) category and a silver medal Digital Radio Personality category for host Malika Bilal.

In three weekly episodes, The Take brings listeners context through interviews with Al Jazeera correspondents and people living at the centre of global news stories and events.

Al Jazeera Digital’s video explainer series, Start Here, scooped three gold medals for its On the Road series at the NYF TV & Film Awards.

In a pivot towards on-location reporting, Executive Producer Julia Mills and Host Sandra Gathmann travelled to Kabul, Afghanistan to report on life for women after the 2021 Taliban takeover, to Lithuania to report on NATO’s Eastern Front and to Qatar’s FIFA World Cup.

Start Here won in the Streaming News, Streaming Documentary and Documentary: International Affairs categories.

Al Jazeera’s short documentaries unit, Close Up, also emerged with a gold medal in the Documentary Series – Social Issues category and a silver in the Documentary – Heroes category for Close Up episode, Ukraine’s Unstoppable Medics.

“We’re proud of our video and podcast teams for delivering the news and diving deep into human stories that offer diversity, context, and vital information to our viewers and listeners,” said Carlos van Meek, director of digital innovation and programming.

Al Jazeera English (AJE), the network’s broadcast television division also won numerous awards, including Broadcaster of the Year, marking the seventh time that AJE has taken home the top prize for most awards won in the NYF TV & Film Awards.

Other winners in TV news categories included Sky News, ESPN and Channel News Asia.