RNZ adds to media awards with three wins at international competition

2:57 pm on 16 November 2021

RNZ has won a number of media awards in the past week, including three wins at the Association of International Broadcasters (AIB) awards.

Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

Checkpoint with Lisa Owen won the Radio & Audio News Reporting category for the show's COVID Lockdown Special, beating other finalists, including Sky News covering the Beirut explosion and Bloomberg Radio's coverage of the storming of the US Capitol.

The judges declared that the Checkpoint entry won for its "high news value and remarkable ability to convey a challenging atmosphere."

Earlier this year Checkpoint won three awards at the NZ Radio Awards, including Best News Story - Team Coverage for the COVID Lockdown Special, Best Show Production Team - Talk Show, and Best Talk Presenter - Breakfast or Drive for host Lisa Owen.

The four-part video series Fight for the Wild, has won the TV and Video Natural World category. The series was produced for RNZ by Fisheye Films and funded by the RNZ/NZ On Air Innovation Fund. In the Domestic Affairs TV & Video category NZ Wars: Stories of Tainui (produced by Great Southern Television for RNZ) was Highly Commended.

Te Aniwa Hurihanganui backs up her Best Young Reporter Award at this year's Voyager Awards with the AIB Special Award for Young Journalist. The former RNZ Henare te Ua (Māori Journalism) intern, now journalist, won for her work for RNZ, including her recent investigations for the In Depth team.

RNZ also won big at the inaugural NZ Podcast Awards on Thursday, winning 10 awards, including Best Publisher, and video series Untold Pacific History won Best Show (NZ Factual) at the NZ Webfest Awards on Saturday.

RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson said that the acknowledgement of RNZ's work across multiple categories and awards is a huge endorsement of RNZ's as a multi-platform media organisation.

"It's really exciting to see the work of Checkpoint and the whole RNZ team, as well as specialist producers of commissioned series like Fisheye Productions and Great Southern Television acknowledged on the global stage."