Press releases and newsletter

Aris Messinis and Yasuyoshi Chiba have been awarded prizes for their work by the Days Japan photojournalism Grand Prix, which recognizes the work of photoreporters around the world.

Messinis, a Greek photographer working in AFP's Athens bureau, won a Special.Prize by Jury for a series of images taken during fighting in the Libyan city of Syrte, in the last battle before the fall of Moamer Kadhafi. He went on two assignments to conver the Libyan conflict. His work included a photo of a rebel fighter playing the guitar during a gunbattle in Syrte.
Messinis has already won a FotoWeek DC prize for his coverage of events in his native Greece.

Japanese photographer Yasuyoshi Chiba, based in AFP's Sao Paulo bureau, was awarded a Special Prize by Jury for his reportage on the tsunami in Japan in March 2011. Then attached to the Nairobi bureau, he was called in on a special assignment to reinforce the Tokyo bureau's coverage of the disaster.
His images also took the first prize in the "People in the News " category at the World Press Photo 2012.

The White House News Photographers Association, which annually awards photographers accredited to the White House, awarded prizes to three Washington-based AFP photographers.

American photographer Jim Watson took first prize in the "On Capital Hill" category for a shot taken during the House budget Committee meeting in February 2011. He also won third prize in the "Picture Story Sport" category for a series of images entitled "The Road to Victory" recounting Irish golfer Rory McIlroy's US Open triumph.
Second prize in the "Pictorial" category went to American Saul Loeb, for a photo taken during a speech by Barack Obama to the Australian parliament.
Bangladeshi photographer Jewel Samad was awarded a prize for excellence in the "Presidential" category for a photo of the US president and the British Prime Minister David Cameron playing table tennis during a meeting with students at London's Globe Academy on May 24, 2011.

About AFP
AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from wars and conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,260 journalists spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.