ICRC and TVRL win the 2007 CNN World Report Award "Best News Report"

31-08-2007 Video Collection

On 19 June 2007, an independent panel of media professionals awarded the prize of Best News report to the Télévision Région Lausannoise (TVRL) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for a co-produced report called 'Rape Violence in the DR Congo'. The item was broadcast on CNN International on 4 and 5 November 2006.

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This report features the story of Mawazo, a rape victim from the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

"I was working in the fields when these thugs attacked me. They had knives and guns. They attacked me and the first one raped me. I screamed and struggled. The second one attacked me with a knife, and I was raped again. Altogether I was raped by seven men. Water poured out mixed with blood."

In some parts of the DRC, brutal rape has become commonplace. Warring groups prey on local women with little fear of retaliation or justice. The consequences for women are harrowing. Many are mutilated and need extensive surgery. They also suffer from social stigma and rejection.

As ICRC delegate Catherine Hilzer explains: "Very often victims of sexual violence are excluded by their own community and even sometimes by their own family, meaning that at a certain point, they may lose their access to their source of income."

This is the fourth time a report co-produced by the ICRC has won this prestigious award.

For more information about the CNN World Report Awards, consult http://worldreport.cnn.com

For more information, please contact Virginie Louis

vlouis.gva@icrc.org
tel: + 41 22 730 25 11 or + 41 79 251 93 14

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An eight minute version of the film about the issue of rape in the DRC is available as part of the series 'From the Field' under the title Democratic Republic of the Congo: the hidden battlefield.

Watch it online in English or in French.