The winners have been announced for the Sandford St Martin Trust religious broadcasting awards.
The awards were held last night at Lambeth Palace where a speech was given by the BBC's Edward Stourton, who yesterday told Press Gazette British journalists have a "blind spot" when it comes to covering religion.
Here is the press release:
Today (Tuesday 3 June 2014), the Sandford St Martin Trust has announced that the BBC's The Story of the Jews has scooped two top accolades at its annual media awards. five-part series, won both the Sandford St Martin Television Award and the Radio Times Readers Award. The series, presented by Simon Schama and produced by Oxford Film and Television for BBC Two, took a personal look at 3,000 years of Jewish history.
The Radio Award was won by I Have a Dream, produced by BBC Scotland Featuresfor BBC Radio 4. The programme brought together well-known personalities to read portions of the famous speech delivered by Martin Luther King in 1963. Readers included: the late Maya Angelou, American author and Civil Rights activist; Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence; His Holiness the Dalai Lama; and American musician, Stevie Wonder.
The Trust's new award for Local, Community and Online programming went to Sounds Jewish: The Jewish Revival in Poland, a podcast produced by JW3: Jewish Community Centre for London and broadcast by guardian.com. The story follows Denise Grollmus as she travels to Poland to search out her ancestral roots.
Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg received the Personal Award. Roger Bolton, trustee of the Sandford St Martin Trust, said he was being recognised for: "putting religion at the heart of human experience and exploring it in such a way that it has enriched public discourse for decades."
The late Sir John Tavener was also recognised, with the Trustees' Award, for "the outstanding contribution his music has made to raising spiritual awareness, building bridges between people of all faiths and none".
The Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop-elect of Leeds and Chair of the Sandford St Martin Trust, said: "This year's entrants were a true reflection of the quality and depth of religious broadcasting in this country. While they all sought to illuminate, educate and entertain us, they also stretched our understanding – vital in the complex modern world. More such broadcasting can only make us stronger as a society."
THE FULL LIST OF AWARD WINNERS
Television Awards
FIRST PRIZE:
The Story of the Jews: Episode 4: ‘Over the Rainbow'
Oxford Film and Television for BBC2
JOINT RUNNERS-UP
A Very British Ramadan
Watershed Productions for Channel 4
Hillsborough: Never Forgotten
BBC Religion and Ethics for BBC2
Radio Times Readers Award
The Story of the Jews: Episode 4: ‘Over the Rainbow'
Oxford Film and Television for BBC2
Radio Awards
FIRST PRIZE:
I Have A Dream
BBC Scotland Features for BBC Radio 4
RUNNER-UP:
Married for a Minute
BBC Asian Network
Local, Community or Online Award
Sounds Jewish: The Jewish Revival in Poland
JW3: Jewish Community Centre for London for www.theguardian.com
Personal Award
Melvyn Bragg
Trustees' Award
Sir John Tavener
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