The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) production, Thug-ocracy, has made the shortlist for the 2011 Association for International Broadcasting Media Excellence Awards (AIBs). Thug-ocracy is competing in the Current Affairs Documentary (Domestic) – TV category of the AIBs, against entries from Belgium, UK, India, Japan, Switzerland and Romania.
This year the AIBs received a record number of entries submitted from countries as diverse as Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, UK and the USA, among others.
The AIBs celebrate the best of global broadcasting across 16 different categories for radio and television and cross-media productions, plus creative marketing and innovative technology. To see the shortlist visit www.theaibs.tv.
In 2011, the AIBs People’s Choice Award is hosted on Yahoo! Maktoob, harnessing the site’s constantly growing reach of more than 55m unique visitors across the MENA region. This year’s topic for the People’s Choice award is “Best Coverage of Democracy Uprisings” highlighting the impact that traditional and social broadcasting has had in enabling the movements for change. Online users from across the world can view and vote for their favourite entry from the six best shortlisted entries via Yahoo! Maktoob.
Simon Spanswick, AIB CEO, said: “The big stories of 2011 such as the tsunami and the Arab Spring are represented in the AIBs entries, but interestingly many of the entries are follow-up stories and incredible tales of people’s survival. Footage captured by ordinary citizens is woven into intricate story-telling to recreate events and put them in context, demonstrating the power of TV in challenging situations. In the cross-media category too the range of topics that programme makers the world over tackle creatively and skilfully is astounding.”
The shortlist is being judged by an independent panel of respected professionals from the broadcasting and wider media industries, making these awards unique in broadcasting because of their independence from commercial interests.
Full details and how to vote for the winner of “People’s Choice” can be found on the People’s Choice page on www.theaibs.tv.
The 2011 AIBs are sponsored by Eurosport, OASYS, Russian Travel Guide TV and Vizrt.
The award ceremony takes place at a gala evening attended by media professionals from around the world on Wednesday, 9 November in London.
