Sky News Wins International Emmy Award for Pakistan Coverage

Sky News has won the prestigious International Emmy Award for its coverage of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Sky News received the award in the news category for its special report: Pakistan - Terror’s Frontline, which presented exclusive coverage which revealed that the Taliban were in charge of a large area of Pakistan. The International Emmys were presented by The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in New York last night (Monday 27 September 2010).

Head of Sky News John Ryley said: "I am delighted that Sky News has won an Emmy award for our TV coverage of the Taliban takeover of the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan - coverage that took both our rivals and the Pakistan government by surprise.  It is a well deserved tribute to a project that was editorially ambitious, daring to pull off, and dangerous - a brilliant achievement."

Pakistan - Terror’s Frontline saw Sky News Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay become the first foreign journalist to enter the Swat Valley after the Taliban took control in March 2009. The Taliban gave Stuart and his team permission to visit, suspending the standing order to catch or kill all foreigners entering Swat Valley. He was able to obtain footage of Taliban training camps for suicide bombers and saw evidence of attacks on security forces there. Sky News was also allowed to film a brutal public lashing carried out by the Taliban on drug addicts and dealers.

As part of the special report, Sky News Presenter Jeremy Thompson interviewed Pakistan’s President, Asif Ali Zardari, who, in contrast to Stuart Ramsay’s evidence, categorically denied that the Taliban were in control of any part of Pakistan. The report also included exclusive access gained by Sky News Special Correspondent, Alex Crawford, to fighters in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.

Other nominees for the News category included Al Jazeera for its English News Hour report Gaza War; RT Channel for extended news coverage on Barack Obama's visit to Russia; and TV Globo with Jornal Nacional: Blackout in Brazil.