Al Jazeera English wins Peabody Award

Al Jazeera English has been named as one of the recipients of the 71st Annual Peabody Awards for the channel’s ground-breaking coverage of the Arab Awakening.

“From December 2010, when protests erupted in Tunisia, through 2011, Al Jazeera was a network of record for millions of viewers throughout the world,” the Peabody judges said on Wednesday.

“On-the-ground reporting was thorough, enterprising and brave,” they added.

Founded in 1940 and administered by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Peabody is the oldest award in electronic media and recognises achievement and public service in television, radio and online.

“We are delighted to receive yet another prestigious and coveted award,” Al Anstey, Managing Director of Al Jazeera English, said.

“This has been a dramatic and historic year across the Arab world, and Al Jazeera English was there to capture every moment and tell the full story of events on the ground,” Anstey said.

“We are very pleased to be recognised for the great work of our teams who covered the stories, and look forward to continuing to provide global, in-depth coverage to our growing audiences in the United States and across the world.”

The Peabody Award follows a number of recent high-profile awards wins for Al Jazeera English.

In February, the channel was named News Channel of the Year at the Royal Television Society Awards, fending off competition from Sky News and BBC News.

Al Jazeera English’s multi-award winning documentary “Shouting in the Dark” recently won the 2012 George Polk Award for Best Television Documentary, and the channel’s flagship US current affairs show Fault Lines also received the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for “Haiti: Six Months On”.

Al Jazeera English also received the Columbia Journalism Award in recognition of the channel’s overall depth and quality of its coverage of the ongoing developments in the Middle East.