Pakistani journalist takes top French journalism prize
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Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui along with French journalists Julien Fouchet and Sylvain Lepetit were honoured with France’s highest journalism award Monday for a report on the killings of health workers in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The Polio War”, which won the Albert Londres prize, follows Pakistan’s battle to eradicate polio, and the health workers who risk their lives to administer vaccines due to virulent propaganda from religious extremists.
While polio has been eradicated in most other parts of the world, polio cases in Pakistan are on the rise, largely due to the disinformation of Islamists who view the polio vaccine as a chemical weapon from the West.
Upon acceptance of their award, the journalists publicly thanked FRANCE 24 for having first broadcast their report on battling religious extremism to contain a disease that could spark a serious health crisis.
“Julien Fouchet, Sylvain Lepetit and Taha Siddiqui have proven that they know how to treat the subject with respect, care and tact while avoiding the cliches such reports usually fall into and which the Albert Londres prize vigorously deplores,” the jury said.
Click here to watch France 24’s Pakistan polio report
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