Press release * Thursday 7 September 2023
Theme: Radio & Peace
Under the presidency of Maurice Mahounon (ORTB, Benin) and the URTI 2023 Jury members: Alexandre Pletser (RTBF, Belgium), Clémence Tuina (RTB, Burkina Faso), Prudence Chetah Bile (CRTV, Cameroon), Dina Abdelmeguid (NMA, Egypt), Zoltan Pásztor (MTVA, Hungary), Marco Lanzarone (RAI, Italy), Carmen Ionescu (Radio Romania, Romania).
URTI GRAND PRIX: La paix des ondes - Merlin Chimegni
CRTV, Cameroon Radio Television - Cameroon
Awa is a young girl from the Far North region. She lost several members of her family during the repeated exactions of the Bocko Haram sect. In her late twenties, Awa left her native Kousseri to seek refuge with a family uncle in Bafoussam.
In this city, Awa met a certain Adama. This meeting will change her life. Adama fled the secessionists in the North-West to take refuge here. Listening to his story, Awa decided to break the silence. Her weapon: the airwaves. Her struggle: the fight for peace. She fights every day for peace of heart, for peace in our families and for peace in our communities.
She uses the community radio where she works to raise awareness and convey her message.
SILVER MEDAL: Carnets de correspondante - Marine Vlahovic & Arnaud Forest
ARTE Radio - ARTE France
From 2016 to 2019, Marine Vlahovic is a correspondent for French-speaking public radio stations in Palestine. Every day she juggles between the urgencies of the editorial offices, the waiting at the checkpoints, the pressures of the two camps and her personal life in occupied territory. She records everything, and today she tells it all: an exceptional, intimate and uncompromising podcast on the making of news.
BRONZE MEDAL: Inside Kabul - Podcast by Caroline Gillet, Raha & Marwa - Anna Buy
France Inter - France
Raha and Marwa are two friends in their twenties, living in Kabul. After the takeover of their country by the Taliban in August 2021, they record voice notes to tell the story of their daily lives. One stays in Kabul, the other flees to a refugee camp.
This is a coming-of-age story, but also the tale of an unusual friendship that began between the two young women and the journalist who received the hundreds of voice notes they sent.
JACQUES MATTHEY-DORET DISCOVERY AWARD: Hyena Women - Mira Matthew
ACSR, Atelier de création sonore radiophonique - Cinésilex - Belgium
Four generations of feminine voices dance in a sonore journey between South Africa and Belgium. They speak of desire, they speak of the wild and they speak of the creative force. Through oceans and shifting sands of timespace recorded by many hands, the transmission ripples, waves and weaves, revealing a hint of the universal bathed intimacy.
DIGITAL WORKS AWARD: Maam Kumba Bang : mythe ou légende ? Jonathan Frigeri, Mbaye Diop & Eric Desjeux
Institut International de Recherche sur la Radio et la Magie - Zonoff - Switzerland
Jonathan Frigeri, Mbaye Diop and Eric Desjeux went to Saint-Louis in Senegal to collect stories about the myth of Maam Kumba Bang, the river goddess who presides over the mouth of the Senegal River, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.
The inhabitants, artists, schoolgirls, boatmen and even historians... give this trio of documentary filmmakers the different versions of this living myth.
