2020 INTERNATIONAL EMMY® AWARDS NOMINEES FOR NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS ANNOUNCED

Nominees from: Brazil, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom

 

New York, August 18, 2020The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences today announced the nominees for the 2020 News & Current Affairs categories. The International Emmy winners will be recognized alongside their American news peers during an online ceremony on September 21.

The 8 nominees span 6 countries: Brazil, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Brazil’s TV Globo is nominated once again in both categories for the coverage of Rio de Janeiro’s state legislature ghost staff (News) and the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish fighters, in the last five months of the battle against ISIS (Current Affairs).

“In the midst of the pandemic, we are grateful for news organizations like these who even before the pandemic were boldly exploring the issues in their societies.” said Bruce L. Paisner, President & CEO of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “We salute the outstanding work and great courage of our nominees for reporting on difficult and sensitive matters, despite the many challenges and obstacles continuously thrown at them.”

The full list of nominees follows. All these programs were broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2019; in accordance with the competition’s eligibility period.

2020 Nominees – News & Current Affairs 

 

News

Channel 4 News: Hong Kong – A Year of Living Dangerously
ITN
United Kingdom
In 2019, Hong Kong surprised itself, China and the rest of the world. A fabulously wealthy financial hub, supposedly driven mainly by the pursuit of profit, stood up to its own government and its masters in Beijing even though this was a willful act of economic self-harm. It did so in spectacular fashion. Suddenly politics and the pursuit of liberty mattered more than economics even though the people of Hong Kong know that they were fighting a losing battle against an unflinching power.

RJ2: Ghost Staff
TV Globo
Brazil
For three months Globo investigated staff at Rio de Janeiro’s state legislature. They received high salaries from public money without showing up for work. Some of them live as far away as the United States. Our reporters caught some of these staffers at home during office hours.

Russian Jet Crash-Landing in Moscow: Timeline and Survivors
RT International
Russia
This program covers the deadly crash-landing of the Superjet-100 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, which left 41 dead. RT looks at the timeline of the tragedy from the moment the jet declared an emergency, to the moment it went up in flames on the tarmac. We bring viewers the stories of survivors, as well as those who sadly died in the crash; and those who put their lives on the line to save others.

The Battle for Burkina Faso
Al Jazeera English
Qatar
The first order from our police escort in Kaya – the provincial capital of Burkina Faso’s Northern Province of Sanmatenga was to make sure our vehicle followed their car tracks. This was just before our journey to front line villages along the main road heading to the porous border with Mali. We were going to areas where many people have been fleeing from to escape cross-border attacks and fighting.

 

Current Affairs

BBC Africa Eye: Sex for Grades
BBC Africa Eye
Nigeria
Female students in Nigeria and Ghana have been complaining of sexual harassment by their university professors for decades. Now, in this investigative documentary, local journalist Kiki Mordi goes undercover to capture evidence of this behavior first-hand by uncovering shocking abuse in West Africa’s top universities.


GloboNews Documentário: Allies (GloboNews Documentaries)
GloboNews / Globo TV
Brazil
Journalist Gabriel Chaim was embedded with the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish fighters, in the last five months of the battle against ISIS. “Allies” also shows the suffering of women and children who escaped the heavy bombardment that targeted Baghouz ISIS’s last stronghold.

Swedbank och Penningtvätten: Dirty Banking (The Story of Swedbank and the World’s Largest Money Laundering Scandal)
Mission Investigate / Sveriges Television (SVT)
Sweden
SVT exposes that Swedbank has been used for systematic money laundering for nearly a decade. The top management withheld information from American investigators about suspicious customers, such as Yanukovych black payments to Manafort.

Undercover: Inside China’s Digital Gulag
Hardcash Productions / ITV
United Kingdom
ITV goes undercover into China’s secretive Xinjiang region. This investigation reveals how twelve million Muslims are living in a human laboratory where the world’s most sophisticated surveillance state is being created to control them, destroying their cultural identity and creating technologies that are being exported to authoritarian states worldwide.

 

About The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

of leading media and entertainment figures from over 60 countries and 500 companies from all sectors of television including internet, mobile and technology. The Academy’s yearly schedule of events includes the prestigious International Emmy® Awards held in New York, The International Emmy® Kids Awards and a series of industry events such as Academy Day, The International Emmy® World Television Festival and Panels on substantive industry topics. The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recognizes excellence in television produced outside of the United States, as well as US Primetime programs produced in languages other than English, with the prestigious Emmy® Award. Currently celebrating programming across varied areas including: Arts Programming, Current Affairs, Comedy, Documentary, Drama Series, News, Non-Scripted Entertainment, Short-Form Series; Telenovela, and TV Movie/Mini-Series, it also recognizes excellence in Performances and Kids programming.  For more information, go to www.iemmys.tv


Media Contacts

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Eva Obadia, Senior Director, Communications & Partnerships
eva.obadia@iemmys.tv

The Lippin Group
Matt Biscuiti
matt@lippingroup.com