South African wins award for genocide documentary

A reporter for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Jacques Pauw, has won the 2001 International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' (ICIJ) Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting, the Washington-based body said on Tuesday. The ICIJ independent panel of international judges awarded Pauw US $20,000 for the winning documentary "The Bishop of Shyogwe". It is a story about an Anglican bishop accused of conspiring with the Rwandan government to kill Tutsis who sought sanctuary in his parish compound during the 1994 genocide. The judges said that without Pauw's effort the bishop, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to answer charges of genocide, might never have been brought to justice. "Jacques Pauw illuminates the tragedy of the Rwandan genocide in the grand tradition of Hanna Arendt's seminal analysis of Adolf Eichmann - by focusing on the 'banality of evil' embodied by a single man," the judges said in their commendation. Competition for the 2001 award attracted 67 entries from 23 countries, involving reporting in 62 countries. Pauw will be presented his award at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington DC in early 2002. The ICIJ describes its annual prize as unique among journalism awards worldwide "in that it was created specifically to honor international investigative reporting". ICIJ, created in 1997, is a network of 80 journalist-members from 44 countries. Details on this year's ICIJ award winner and finalists, as well as information on how to apply for the 2002 award, are available at the ICIJ website at http://www.icij.org