By CGTN’s Ryan Chua
A CGTN documentary on Syrians living in one of the world's largest refugee camps has taken home a Silver World Medal at the 2017 New York Festivals International Film and Television Awards.
"Inside Zaatari," which won under the festival's current affairs category, gives an inside look at the conditions in Jordan's Zaatari camp, home to more than 80,000 Syrians who fled the civil war in their country. The documentary for CGTN's weekly program Assignment Asia aired in May 2016 as the conflict in Syria entered its fifth year.
More than 200 directors, producers, writers, and other media professionals judged this year's New York Festivals entries from 40 countries.
CGTN correspondent Stephanie Freid spent eight days documenting life at the Zaatari camp with her cameraman Gil Somekh. There, they witnessed how refugees tried to bring some normalcy to their lives even as they bore the trauma of war.
"Inside Zaatari" /CGTN Photo
"The greatest honor is telling stories of Syrian refugees who dream of an end to the war and returning home," said Freid, who has covered the Middle East extensively.
Almost half a million people have died since the war in Syria broke out in 2011, according to the UN. The conflict has also turned millions of Syrians into refugees, as residents at the Zaatari camp make up just a small fraction of the more than 5 million people who have fled to other countries.
Two other Assignment Asia documentaries won finalist certificates at the festival: Barnaby Lo's "Operation: Drug War" about the Philippines' war on drugs, and "Gold Town," an investigative piece on children working at small-scale gold mines in a rural Philippine town.
Launched in 2015, Assignment Asia airs in-depth features and documentaries that seek to draw attention to some of the region's most pressing and under-reported issues.
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