The 2011 AIBs shortlist announced

The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) has announced the shortlist for the 2011 AIBs, the seventh annual International Media Excellence Awards, selected from a record number of entries submitted this year from countries as diverse as Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, UK and the USA, among others. The AIBs celebrate the best of global broadcasting across 16 different categories for radio and television and cross-media productions, plus creative marketing and innovative technology.

In 2011, the AIBs People’s Choice Award is hosted on Yahoo! Maktoob, harnessing the site’s constantly growing reach of more than 55m unique visitors across the MENA region. This year’s topic for the People’s Choice award is “Best Coverage of Democracy Uprisings” highlighting the impact that traditional and social broadcasting has had in enabling the movements for change. Online users from across the world can view and vote for their favourite entry from the six best shortlisted entries via Yahoo! Maktoob.

Simon Spanswick, AIB CEO, said “Of course the big stories of 2011 such as the tsunami and the Arab Spring are represented in the AIBs entries, but interestingly many of the entries are follow-up stories and incredible tales of people’s survival. Footage captured by ordinary citizens is woven into intricate story-telling to recreate events and put them in context, demonstrating the power of TV in challenging situations. In the cross-media category too the range of topics that programme makers the world over tackle creatively and skilfully is astounding.”

The shortlist is being judged by an independent panel of respected professionals from the broadcasting and wider media industries, making these awards unique in broadcasting because of their independence from commercial interests.

Full details and how to vote for the winner of “People’s Choice” can be found on the People’s Choice page at theaibs.tv website.

The 2011 AIBs are sponsored by Eurosport, OASYS, Russian Travel Guide TV and Vizrt. The award ceremony takes place at a gala evening attended by media professionals from around the world on Wednesday, 9 November 2011 in London.

Shortlisted entries for the 2011 AIBs – by category

Organisation – Entry title

Current Affairs Documentary – radio

KBS, South Korea – A Special Journey to the DMZ

Radio Taiwan International, ROC Taiwan – Freeing Taiwan’s Slaves

CTVC, UK – Haiti One Year On

BBC World Service, UK – Africa Mass Rapes in Fizi, Eastern DR Congo

DR (The Danish Broadcasting Corporation), Denmark – Sold to Prostitution

ABC Radio, Australia – Sustainable Sounds

Current Affairs Documentary (domestic) – TV

VRT, Belgium – Children of the Church

Current TV, UK – Gail Porter on Prostitution

INX News Pvt Ltd, India – India Endangered

NHK, Japan – Surviving the Tsunami

SABC, South Africa – Thug-ocracy

SRF Swiss Television, Switzerland – Two Women – One Journey

Antena 3, Romania – Wandering for a piece of bread

Current Affairs Documentary (international) – TV

Channel 4, UK – Dispatches: City of Fear

Channel 4, UK – Dispatches: The Battle for Haiti

BBC Scotland, UK – Eorpa Belarus

Aljazeera English, Qatar – People & Power: Blood and Dust

British Sky Broadcasting, UK – Ross Kemp: Extreme World

True Vision, UK – Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children

Current Affairs Documentary (Middle East) – TV

BBC Arabic, UK – Egypt – Revolution Diary

BBC, UK – Panorama: Fighting Gaddafi

BBC Arabic, UK – Revolution Uploaded

Aljazeera English, Qatar – The Death of Fear

Press TV, Iran – The Distorted Lens: The Media and the MIddle East

NDTV, India – The Women of Tahrir Square

Most creative marketing strategy

Shree FM, Sri Lanka – Shree Reload Wasanawa

Star News, India – Star News Anchor Hunt

France 24, France – The Birds

Most creative feature – radio

RTE, Ireland – Don’t go Far

Voice of Nigeria, Nigeria – Early Marriage – The bane of the girl child

RTHK, Hong Kong – Mandela and South Africa

VRT, Belgium – The America Watcher

Voice of America, USA – The Making of a Nation: D Day invasion at Normandy

Société Radio Canada, Canada – The Spirit of Places

Best investigative documentary – radio

Czech Radio, Czech Republic – Pilot and death

Radio Free Asia, USA – Staring Down the Muzzle

RFE/RL, Czech Republic – The Invisible Women of Osh

Clearest coverage of a single news event – radio

BBC Radio 5 Live, UK – AV: Mock Election

Voice of America, USA – Cairo Protesters in jubilant mood

ABC Radio, Australia – Cyclone Yasi

Radio Free Asia, USA – Nuclear leak at Daya Bay

BBC Burmese Service, UK – Release of Pro Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Clearest coverage of a single news event – TV

CBS, USA – 60 Minutes: A Relentless Enemy

NHK, Japan – Departing in Dignity

Sky News, UK – Egypt Crisis

VRT, Belgium – Floods in Pakistan

NDTV, India – Japan Tsunami

BBC World News, UK – Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami

Aljazeera English, Qatar – Osama Bin Ladan Death

Antena 3, Romania – Tragedy at the Giulesti Maternity Hospital

Best children’s factual programme or series

BBC Newsround, UK – Growing up in a war zone

BBC Newsround, UK – Living with Alcohol

BBC Newsround, UK – Living with Cancer

BBC Children’s, UK – Serious Explorers: Livingstone

Best financial or business programme

CBS, USA – 60 Minutes: Hard Times Generation

Société Radio Canada, Canada – Meltdown

RT News Channel, Russia – On the money

CBS, USA – 60 Minutes: The 99ers

France 24, France – The new Irish exodus

Best investigative documentary – TV

Aljazeera English, Qatar – On a wing and a prayer

BBC London, UK – Project Prevention

DR (The Danish Broadcasting Corporation), Denmark – The Man who lied the World into War

Antena 3, Romania – The Poison on our homes

Channel News Asia, Mediacorp, Singapore – Unbroken Faith

CNN International, USA – World’s Untold Stories: Locked up and Forgotten

Best science programme or series

KBS, South Korea – Exploring Human – Memory

British Sky Broadcasting, UK – Flying Monsters 3D

Deutsche Welle, Germany – Future Now Series

TGA Production, France – Is the magnetic pole about to flip?

Russian Travel Guide TV, Russia – Volcanoes of Kamchatka

Best coverage of a live sports event

Nine Network, Australia – 2010 State of Origin – NSW v QLD Game 1

Russian Travel Guide TV, Russia – Khanty-Mansiysk World Chess Olympiad

BBC Birmingham, UK – Stoke City in the FA Cup Final

Eurosport, France – IRC SimulCam Coverage

NDTV, India – The World Cup of Joy

Sony Professional & Others, UK – Wimbledon in 3D

Best cross-media production

KBS, South Korea – Korean Cuisine

Czech Radio, Czech Republic – Secret defence of the iron curtain

Radio Free Asia, USA – The Lives of Vietnamese Women….

BBC, UK – Eight Weeks to face the Taliban

BBC, UK – Arabic-Persian Special on the 30th Anniversary of Iran-

Iraq War

BBC, UK – 24 Hour Panel People

DR (The Danish Broadcasting Corporation), Denmark – 1864

Most innovative technology

Radio Taiwan International, ROC Taiwan – Establish KPI with cloud computing

France 24, France – HBB TV Applications

Thomson Reuters, USA – Reuters Insider Promo

Ideal Shopping Direct Limited, UK – USA Live

International Radio Personality of the Year

RFE/RL, Czech Republic – Farshid Manafi

Radio Sawa, USA – Mohamed Moawad

Voice of America, USA – Steve Ember

International TV Personality of the Year

NDTV, India – Barkha Dutt

British Sky Broadcasting, UK – Sir David Attenborough

BBC World News, UK – Mishal Husain

The Doha Debates, Qatar – Tim Sebastian

British Sky Broadcasting, UK – Ross Kemp

“People’s Choice: “Best Coverage of Democracy Uprisings”

Aljazeera English, Qatar – Arab Awakening

Press TV, Iran – Battle for Bahrain

NDTV, India – Battle for Libya

France24, France – Reporters: Tunisia after Ben Ali

Alhurra TV, USA – Protests in Egypt

Deutsche Welle, Germany – Journal: Million Man March

Sponsors of the 2011 AIBs





Eurosport are the sponsors of the AIBs category “Best cross-media production”. Eurosport is the leading sports entertainment group in Europe and boasts six TV channels worldwide. The flagship channel Eurosport is the no 1 pan-European TV channel, broadcast in 20 languages and reaching 125 million homes across 59 countries.

OASYS are the sponsors of the AIBs category “Most innovative technology”.
OASYS has been leading the transition to software-based playout solutions for 20 years. The company’s flagship product, OASYS Player, is complemented by straightforward optional OASYS software to provide efficient, high quality, end-to-end playout solutions that are easy-to-use, scalable, flexible and, most importantly, highly reliable.

RTG TV are the sponsors of the AIBs category “Best current affairs documentary”.
Russian Travel Guide TV is an international documentary TV channel focused on the cultural and geographical variety of the world’s largest country. It covers a wide range of topics – from history to culture, cuisine, nature programmes, active holidays, and Russia’s ethnic mix.

Vizrt are the sponsors of the AIBs category “Best live sports coverage”.Vizrt creates leading-edge content production tools for the digital media industry – from award-winning 3D graphics and maps through integrated video workflow solutions and online publishing tools. Vizrt proposes a new vision for content creation, management and delivery with an end-to-end solution from conception to multi-format distribution.

The 2011 AIBs People’s Choice Award will
be hosted on

The judges

The judges for the AIBs have a vast range of experience in different aspects of broadcasting and are drawn from all over the world. The full list is:

Daniel Adams, Head of International Content, Dailymotion, France | Nashwa Al Ruwaini, CEO, Pyramedia, UAE| Salim Amin, Chairman, A24 Media, Kenya | David Astley, Executive Chairman, Asia-Pacific Media Alliance for Social Awareness, Singapore | Nigel Baker, VP Business Operations EMEA and Asia, APTN, UK | Wayne Borg, Deputy CEO and COO, twofour54, UAE | Julian Clover, Editorial Director, Broadband TV News, UK | Eugen Cojocariu, Director, Radio Romania International, Romania | Helle Dale, Senior Fellow for Public Diplomacy, The Heritage Foundation, USA | David Dufresne, Writer/Director, DufLab, Canada | Hosam El Sokkari, Head of Audience, Yahoo! Middle East, UAE | Mark Errington, CEO, OASYS, UK | Adelheid Feilcke-Tiemann, Director International Relations, Deutsche Welle, Germany | Monica Fritz, Producer/Director, 6 news, Turkey | Angela Fung, Deputy Head Phoenix Chinese Channel, Phoenix Satellite TV, Hong Kong | Regina Goh, Executive Editor, Channel NewsAsia, Singapore | Peter Goldstein, Director of Communications, InterMedia, USA | Mohamed Ali Harrath, CEO, Islam Channel, UK | Mondher Kalai, Commissioning Executive, JCC, Qatar | Kim Hyuk-dong, Deputy Director, KBS World Radio, Korea | François Laborie, Chief Commercial Officer, Vizrt, Norway | Paulo Markun, Consultant, TV Escola, Brazil | Chris Maroleng, Africa Editor, e.tv, South Africa | Michael McCluskey, CEO, ABC Radio Australia, Australia | Marcus Metzner, Head of Marketing Services & Communication, arvato systems GmbH, Germany | Olivier de Montchenu, Commercial & Marketing Director, Euronews, France | Dick van Motman, President & CEO, DDB Greater China Group, PR China | Alexey Nikolov, Deputy Editor in Chief, RT Channel, Russia | Ian O’Reilly, Producer/Director, BBC News – TV, UK | Nader Sh. Rad, Director Programmes Department, PressTV, Iran | Julia Ragona, Chief Broadcast Operations Officer, RFE/RL, Czech Republic | Dick Rempt, CEO, TalentsMedia, The Netherlands | Paul Robinson, MD, KidsCo, UK | Karim Sarkis, Executive Director of Broadcast, Abu Dhabi Media Company, UAE | Vatche Sarkisian, Director of Research and Program Review, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, USA | Danny Schechter, Executive Producer, Globalvision, USA | Simon Spanswick, CEO, AIB, UK | Fedor Strizhkov, CEO, Russian Travel Guide TV, Russia | David Treadway, Managing Director, WRN Broadcast, UK | Jeff Trimble, Executive Director, Broadcasting Board of Governors, USA | Laeed Zaghlami, Journalist/Writer, Algeria