Media Peace Awards

Nga Tohu Rongomau Papaho

MEDIA PEACE AWARDS UPDATE 

The Peace Foundation will not be calling for entries this year.  We will be working with Oxfam NZ and other key NGOs to develop a new set of awards to be launched in 2009.  These will build on 25 years of the Media Peace Awards - to include peace, international development, human rights and environmental issues.

If you have any queries feel free to contact us.

"The Media Peace Awards are, for me, the most important awards given to journalism in any country"

-John Pilger

The media play a vital role in the way that our society sees itself and the way that it functions. They can foster understanding and tolerance, expose and oppose violence, or inflame already volatile situations.

The Media Peace Awards were inaugurated by The Peace Foundation in 1984 to promote the values of peace and conflict resolution, rather than confrontation and violence in the media. The awards seek to recognise media professionals and students who actively contribute towards reducing conflict, addressing differences and counteracting prejudices in our society and in the wider world. They seek to honour serious jouranlism and its commitment to 'shedding light rather than heat'.

In 1993, to mark the 10th anniversary of the awards the Ragatahi (Student) category was added and contained the same sections as the professional - Print, Radio, TV/Film.

In 2000 the 'Like Minds, Like Mine'  Media Award was added to the awards. It ran for just two years. Then in 2007 the Oxfam 'Peace and Development in the Pacific' Media Award, covering development and peace issues in the Pacific, was established under the Media Peace Awards.

The Awards are announced at a public ceremony in November, together with a special guest speaker talking on a relevant topic. Speakers over the years have included the prize-winning Australian journalist Patrick White, British film-maker Peter Watkins, commentator and intellectual Noam Chomsky, award-winning journalist John Pilger, American actor Ed Asner, journalist Anita McNaught, NZ author James McNeish, and cartoonist Tom Scott.

The different categories of entries are judged by seperate and independent panels of experts from their field. The convenor of judges over the years have included Sir Guy Powles, Helene Wong, Trish Gribben, Bill Saunders and Ray Waru.