Anonymous video of Neda Aghan-Soltan's death wins Polk award

The George Polk Awards, one of the most important annual journalism prizes, has honoured the anonymous video of the death of Neda Aghan-Soltan during the 2009 Iranian election protests.

The new videography category reflects the increasing importance of user contributions to journalism in an era where cameras are commonplace. It is the first time in the 61-year history of the awards that a work produced anonymously has won.

"This award celebrates the fact that, in today's world, a brave bystander with a cellphone camera can use video-sharing and social networking sites to deliver news," said the New York Times' John Darnton, the curator of the Polk Awards.

More and more news organisations integrate user-created content professionally in their news reporting. CNN and Fox News have already both launched their own user reports and rely on them frequently to enrich the material of their reporters after the content has been checked and rated by experts.

The BBC established a user-generated content team as a pilot in April 2005 with three staff, that was made permanent and expanded after the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the Buncefield oil depot fire. The new director of BBC global news, Peter Horrocks, recently told the corporation's journalists to use social media as an additional source.

The anonymously filmed 40-second video of Neda's death was forwarded to the Guardian and the Voice of America, along with five other individuals. One of them uploaded it on Facebook, from where copies spread to YouTube and were broadcast within hours by CNN.

Being filmed as she lay dying on the street Neda's death became the iconic visualisation of the Iranian protesters questioning the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"This video footage was seen by millions and became an iconic image of the Iranian resistance. We don't know who took it or who uploaded it, but we do know it has news value," said Darnton.

The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York. CBS correspondent Polk was killed while covering the civil war in Greece in 1948. The awards made in his memory have become have become some of the most coveted journalism honours in the US.

(via journalism.co.uk, NYTimes.com)