NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 16 – Italian journalist Francesco Semprini was awarded the most prestigious prize od the 2022 United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) for his coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Long time United Nations and war correspondent with the Italian daily ‘La Stampa’, in his over hundred days spent on the frontline Semprini told the story of the threat of atomic catastrophe in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. In his 2022 winning entry, he followed the UN inspectors (IAEA) headed to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant targeted by bombing, up to the gray zone, the no man’s land where Russians and Ukrainians face off with artillery. The same one that the team led by Rafael Grossi crossed to avoid the atomic disaster.
Semprini was awarded the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize for coverage of the UN and UN agencies via print, online media and broadcast tv and radio. Created to honor the memory of Elizabeth Neuffer, the Boston Globe bureau chief at the United Nations, who died while on assignment in Baghdad in 2003, the award is sponsored by the Alexander Bodini Foundation.
The prize will be awarded on December 9 during a gala in New York with secretary General antonio Guterres as the guest of honor. During the same evening actor Kate Hudson, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Programme, will receive the Global Citizen Award.
The U.N. Correspondents Association is a professional organization of over 200 correspondents and producers from dozens of countries, representing scores of publications, news agencies, and broadcasters from all regions of the world. The organization was founded in 1948. The relationship between the United Nations Correspondents Association, as the organization representing the U.N. press corps, and the Secretary General is based on an agreement in 1955 and is recognized annually by the United Nations General Assembly.
Besides the annual gala recognizing outstanding journalism and work on humanitarian issues by prominent individuals, UNCA sponsors press briefings. It is associated with the Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalists, which sponsors journalists from developing countries for the duration of the annual General Assembly. (@OnuItalia)
