WASHINGTON -- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) website and the video report, The Afghan Boy Who Supports Nine People, have been officially shortlisted in the 8th Annual Lovie Awards.
RFE/RL’s responsive website, nominated in the News & Politics category, supports 24 languages and is used by RFE/RL’s worldwide audience of over 31 million. The Afghan Boy Who Supports Nine People, produced by RFE/RL’s Afghan Service and Multimedia Department and nominated for Best Editing, tells the story of 13-year old Mansur, who supports a family of nine in Afghanistan by working at a Kabul market with nothing more than a wheelbarrow and his wits. Viewed more than 7.6 million times on RFE/RL's English-language Facebook page, and another 510,000 times in the Dari and Pashto languages via the Afghan Service’s Facebook pages, the video’s impact was such that local residents who learned of Mansur’s story stepped up to provide funding to allow him and his siblings to attend school.
RFE/RL’s website won silver in the 2017 Lovie Awards in the News and Politics Website category, alongside the websites of gold winner VICE News and silver winner The Guardian. It won bronze in the same category in 2016. A video documentary from RFE/RL’s Russian Service about refugees on both sides of the fighting in eastern Ukraine won bronze in 2015.
The Lovie Awards is a European competition that celebrates outstanding media created for the web. Presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), it is the leading European award honoring excellence on the Internet.
The Official Shortlist distinction is awarded by the IADAS to recognize remarkable achievement, alongside the listing of Finalists for 2018 Lovie Awards. The distinction is granted to just 17% of the nearly 1,500 entries received for this year’s awards from 33 countries.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Joanna Levison in Prague (levisonj@rferl.org, +420.221.122.080)
Martins Zvaners in Washington (zvanersm@rferl.org, +1.202.457.6948)