NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 15 – Marco Congiu of the Italian television news channel Sky TG24 has won one of the 2023 United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) for making the threat of climate change palpable in stark human terms. The Italian journalist won the Prince Albert II of Monaco Silver Medal for his reports on the forced departure of the population of the Isle of Jean-Charles, not far from New Orleans, which is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico due to storm surges and rising seas—a warning of the challenges faced by larger seaside communities and cities in the years to come.
The awards will be assigned on December 15 during the annual UNCA gala attended by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The top winner this year is Colum Lynch, senior reporter for Devex (United States), who reported that Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea shortly after its troops invaded Ukraine alarmed the UN and governments of the impacts on food prices.
Other awards went to Alannah Travers of The New Humanitarian (United Kingdom), Roy Barbosa, Manila Today (Philippines), NHK Special – The UN Production Team (Japan), Shalini Singh, People’s Archive of Rural India (India), Nadima Umar Uthman, GHOne TV (Ghana), Valerie Volcovici from Reuters (United States) and Juan Carlos Machorro, Periodismo y Ambiente (Mexico).
The U.N. Correspondents Association, UNCA, 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, 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, most recently, in 2018.
It represents the U.N. press corps at the United Nations on issues related to coverage of the news and access to news sources.
UNCA sponsors press briefings and an annual gala dinner recognizing outstanding journalism and work on humanitarian issues by prominent individuals. 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)
