REPORTS about brawling skin heads in Germany and a Dutch examination of national identity won the top awards in the International Federation of Journalists annual awards for tolerance in journalism.
The prize for audiovisual work went to a programme called Who Can Call Himself Dutch and What Does it Mean to be Dutch? for Ikon Television in Holland, while the print award went to Frank Jansen a journalist on the Berlin daily Dear Tagesspiegel, for "Then You'll Just Have To Go Naked" a description of fights between gangs of skinheads and Lebanese refugees in Furstenwalde last July.
The judges, who included the Foreign Editor of The Irish Times Paul Gillespie, expressed concern that the media too often saw the issue of tolerance in terms of the "issue of immigration" rather than taking a close look at other aspects of discrimination. Journalists were too fixed on reporting events, rather than giving the audience added information which put those incidents in context.
The judges' report said the prize was not to celebrate elitist or experimental work, but rather "journalism as a craft, anxious to understand and to help others understand, anxious to apply the noblest and most stringent professional practices to the choice of subject, the quest for information and its presentation".
They said it seemed that too often journalists were content to simply photograph, report an event or hold out a microphone, without placing events in context.
Commenting on Mr Jansen's winning article the judges said it showed that the journalist had a choice "between simply taking down the speeches uttered by the spokesman of authority or tirelessly searching for the truth".
The winners were announced in Strasbourg yesterday at the annual European Media Forum to celebrate European Day Against Racism. The awards are supported by the European Commission, the Council of Europe and leading broadcasters and publishers.