Introduction
Fatal Extraction, our multimedia investigation into the environmental and social impact of Australian mining companies in Africa, has been nominated for an Emmy Award: the most prestigious U.S. television industry honors.
A joint project of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its parent the Center for Public Integrity, Fatal Extraction involved our own staff reporting from four countries and formed part of a large-scale media collaboration between a dozen journalists in Africa. Many of these journalists continue to collaborate with ICIJ, most recently on the Panama Papers.
Fatal Extraction combined video and still photography shot across the continent with data and long-form journalism in a new format developed the team at the Center. The nomination is in the News & Documentary Emmy Awards “New Approaches: Documentary” category.
ICIJ Africa desk editor Will Fitzgibbon and Center for Public Integrity multimedia editor Eleanor Bell Fox reported from the field and produced the package. Fitzgibbon and ICIJ data reporter Cécile Schilis-Gallego analyzed thousands of documents to reveal the scale of Australia’s mining presence in Africa and the number of fatalities reported by companies operating across the continent.
Center for Public Integrity News developer Chris Zubak-Skees designed and developed the platform in a continual process of refinement with Bell Fox. Former Center for Public Integrity chief digital officer Kimberley Porteous was executive producer.
“I’m thrilled to receive such recognition for a project that brought an unfamiliar subject to audiences by combining months of shoe-leather reporting, difficult data analysis and creative in-house visual innovation,” Will told me today.
Eleanor added: “It’s an honor to be nominated among so many esteemed colleagues. I hope the recognition of this project will draw new audiences to the deeply harrowing stories shared by people across Africa. Their courage breathed life into incontrovertible data uncovered over months of reporting.”
Fatal Extraction is a personal favorite of mine among the work from the Center and the ICIJ over the past year with its blend of video and text and the way it brings the stories of individuals to life. The project had specific support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for which we are grateful.
Other nominees in the same category at the Emmy’s are: PBS Frontline for “Inheritance”, PBS Independent Lens for “After the Storm”, The New York Times “Walking in War’s Path” and National Geographic and the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism for “Wiped, Flashed and Rekitted”.
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