Plan for the 3rd Hinzpeter Awards to be Announced (May 16, 2023)

Launched in 2021 to honor the journalistic spirit of the late Jürgen Hinzpeter

- Recognize video journalists who cover the stories of democracy, human rights, and peace: three competitive categories, one non-competitive category, and $10,000 prize money with a trophy for each category

Korea has international journalism awards that recognize video journalists who capture the scenes of human rights, justice, peace, and freedom in various parts of the world. The Hinzpeter Awards have been jointly organized by the May 18 Memorial Foundation and the Korea Video Journalist Association and sponsored by the Gwangju Municipality since 2021.

This year, the schedule for the Hinzpeter Awards will be announced on May 16 and applications will be received through July. The award ceremony will take place in Seoul on November 8 (Wed.).

Three awards in the competitive category and one award in the non-competitive category, USD 10,000 prize money and a trophy conferred to each awardee

- The Hinzpeter Awards has four categories: three competitive and one non-competitive categories. Winners receive $10,000 in prize money and a trophy each.

Award Categories

For submitting applications and finding the list of previous awardees, please visit

http://www.hinzpeterawards.com/

Film and Journalist Hinzpeter

The 2017 film was made based on the real-life story of a German journalist Hinzpeter who secretly entered Korea to cover Gwangju in 1980 and a South Korean taxi driver who drove him to the city. Jürgen Hinzpeter is a German journalist whose footage brought the attention of the world to the brutal reality of the May 18th Democratic Movement.

Hinzpeter covered in his footage the massacre by the martial law army and the citizens’ uprising in Gwangju in May 1980 and made the stories known to the outer world. He was then an ARD (Germany’s No 1. public broadcaster) correspondent in Japan and secretly entered Korea without reporting to the Defense Security Command (a military intelligence & interrogation agency). He sneaked into Gwangju bypassing security checks by the soldiers and captured the brutal massacre of citizens by airborne troops in his footage, which was sent to Germany. Later on May 23, he came back to Gwangju and captured what happened in the city till the last minute of the military operation.

He sent his footage from Narita International Airport in Tokyo to West Germany on May 22, 1980, and it was broadcast on a news program at 8:00 p.m. on the same day, followed by another footage of his on May 23. The videos he filmed were reproduced and broadcast as a documentary titled in September 1980.

Hidden Truth about the May 18 Democratic Movement Spread through Videos Later among Koreans

Later in 1985, the so-called “Gwangju Videos,” including Hinzpeter’s footage, were secretly brought to anti-government activists across the country under strict media censorship and over 2,000 manually copied videotapes spread across the country. One such video was officially screened at the Busan Catholic Center in May 1987 for the first time, led by two human rights lawyers, Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in, which then catalyzed the June Uprising. (Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in later became the 16th and 19th presidents of South Korea)

Hinzpeter’s footage carried significance more than ordinary news reports do, making a remarkable contribution to giving the May 18 Democratic Movement its well-deserved recognition as we see today.

“Human rights and the rule of law cannot be assured without independent journalism. A world without journalism has no responsibility. The fates of the many fall in the hands of the few and they are unfairly exploited.”

- Christopher Deloire (Chairman of the 2nd Hinzpeter Awards Evaluation Committee and Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders (RSF))

The organizing staff of the Hinzpeter Awards shares suggestions and opinions on ways to promote freedom, democracy, and peace of the world, in addition to endeavoring to find the truth of the May 18 Democratic Movement, fulfill responsibilities for the country, and promote democracy in South Korea.

The Hinzpeter Awards were launched to honor and encourage video journalists who are devoted to finding the truth of fights for democracy, human rights, and peace occurring in many parts of the world and defy oppression on the freedom of media even with their lives at peril. Our sincere thanks go to those video journalists who take the risk of their own lives and safety in many parts of the world, where democracy and human rights are violated and the freedom of media is controlled, and also to the journalists who broadcast their video footage.