Two Nepali journalists, Samik Kharel and Roshan Sedhai, won second prize in the esteemed Fetisov Journalism Award for their collaborative piece titled Nepalis Feel Human Toll of Qatar’s World Cup. The story highlights mistreatment and labour exploitation experienced by workers tasked with constructing stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Kharel and Sedhai won the second prize in the Contribution to Civil Rights category. Additionally, the journalist duo was awarded 20,000 Swiss francs (Nrs 29,21,179) as a second prize.
About 400 entries from 96 countries were submitted to this year’s competition. Fetisov Journalism Award, which has an annual prize fund of 520,000 Swiss francs distributes prizes among four categories: Outstanding Contribution to Peace; Contribution to Civil Rights; Outstanding Investigative Reporting; and Excellence in Environmental Journalism.
The first prize for the category of Contribution to Civil Rights was won by an American journalist Anna-Catherine Brigida for her story How Surveillance Tech Helped Protect Power — and the Drug Trade — in Honduras. Similarly, the third prize in the same category was won by the Venezuelan journalists Claudia Smolansky, Marielba Nunez and Carmen Victoria Inojosa for their story entitled Series: Torture is the Neighbour.
