The 38th One World Media Awards Winners and Highlights
London, Wednesday 17 June 2026:
The 38th One World Media Awards ceremony took place on 17 June at Ham Yard Theatre in Soho, London, hosted by Channel 4 News Presenter and Correspondent Ayshah Tull. Winners were announced across 14 categories, drawn from freelance journalists, independent outlets and major broadcasters including the BBC, Al Jazeera and the New York Times, covering stories from across the Global South.
Sudan was the standout story of the night, with four awards recognising work from inside and around the conflict:
- Current Affairs Award: Inside Darfur: Siege and Massacres, BBC Eye Investigations
- Feature Documentary Award: KHARTOUM, Native Voice Films
- Press Freedom Award: Ayin Network
- Journalist of the Year Award: Mohammed Amin, Middle East Eye
Nearly one in three people in Sudan – over 15 million people – have been displaced since fighting broke out in April 2023. Despite being the largest and fastest-growing displacement crisis in modern history, it has remained largely absent from the daily news cycle. Tonight’s awards are a direct response to that silence.
The Women’s Solutions Reporting Award supported by the European Investment Bank went to One Month in Ramallah, Sawsan Qaoud’s portrait of Governor Laila Ghannam leading her city through conflict, celebration and resilience. The Award highlights the transformative role of women in addressing global challenges.
The News Award went to The Gaza Family Torn Apart by IDF Snipers from Chicago and Munich, a five-month investigation by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in partnership with The Guardian, Der Spiegel and ZDF, uncovering how two foreign nationals serving in the Israeli military killed four members of one family in Gaza in a single day.
Across the remaining categories, winners included investigations into the EU’s funding of Libya’s coast guard migration operations, oil giant Ecopetrol’s pollution of Colombian rivers and wetlands, the surrogacy industry’s exploitation of Thai women, endangered Irrawaddy dolphins threatened by a Philippine mega-bridge project, and the homegrown carbon science transforming understanding of the Congo Basin. The Student Award went to A Step Change, Yitong Liu’s portrait of female porters navigating tradition and automation in China’s mountains.
One World Media Interim Director, Chinwe Kalu-Uma, said:
“Tonight we celebrated journalists and outlets who go where others don’t and stay when others leave. This work breaks the silence around crises largely absent in the daily news cycle, holds power to account, and reframes who gets to be the subject of a story. It is also produced at real personal risk, by journalists operating inside active conflict zones, facing press restrictions and funding pressure. From Sudan to Gaza, from the Amazon to the Congo Basin, this year’s winners remind us why bold journalism is worth funding and fighting for. We are proud to stand behind every one of them.”
One World Media also launched its new G20: Voices for the Land Fellowship in partnership with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which will support five digital content creators and journalists to tell engaging stories on the complex topic of land degradation. The partnership reflects One World Media’s commitment to building the pipeline of journalists covering climate change and environmental stories.
A full list of winners is available here.