Awards
AFP wins fourth Rory Peck video award
Luis Sequeira, an AFP video stringers from Nicaragua, wins the prestigious Rory Peck Award which each year recognises the best work by freelance photo and video journalists.
Our stringer was rewarded for his exceptional video coverage of the 2018-2019 Nicaraguan protests, featuring striking images of demonstrators’ arrests and clashes with security forces. The protests, which erupted on April 18, 2018 in response to President Daniel Ortega’s social security reforms, killed 325 people between opposition supporters and security forces and saw 60,000 inhabitants exiled.
Luis Sequeira is only 25 years old. He got his start in video at age 17, and has already worked for Telemundo, RCN, HBO, Reuters and Ruptly throughout his career. He has reported on events across the Americas, Asia and Europe, notably covering the exodus of the Kurdish people in 2014, the Paris jihadist attacks in 2015, and the Orlando night club shooting in 2016. He started freelancing for AFP in Nicaragua, his home country, in 2018.
« This award represents another success for AFPTV coverage in Latin America, where AFP has developed a network of highly talented video journalists to showcase our coverage and bring the continent's news to the rest of the world, » said Phil Chetwynd, AFP Global News Director.
This is the fourth Rory Peck Award won by an AFP stringer. Previous recipients from the agency include:
• Will Vassilopoulos for his coverage of the migrant crisis in Greece
• Zein Al-Rifai for his report on the Syrian civil war
• Pacôme Pabandji for his coverage of the civil conflict in the Central African Republic.
Launched in 1995 by the Rory Peck Trust, the awards recognise the work of the best freelance video journalists, and the prize ceremony is one of the main events through which the Trust raises funds to assist stringers. The 24th edition of the Rory Peck Awards was presented by award-winning Sudanese journalist Nima Elbagir and Alex Thomson, a British journalist for Channel 4 News. The quality of AFP's video production also won recognition on Wednesday November 6 at the 2019 Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) Awards Ceremony. Colin Berthier’s and Gihad Darwish’s “Baghouz, the end of the Caliphate” story achieved a “Highly commended” mention in the “Daily Journalism: Single report” category. AFP was the only news agency shortlisted this year.