Radio Netherlands has won the NLGJA/Seigenthaler Excellence in Radio Award 2005. The United States National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) granted its First Place Award to Radio Netherlands journalist Eric Beauchemin for his documentary ‘In Limbo: Gay Palestinians’. The organisation’s Third Place Award went to another Radio Netherlands journalist, David Swatling, for his programme ‘Vox Humana: Love Exile on the Road’. The awards will be presented in Chicago on 24 September.
The jury said that Eric Beauchemin’s programme made a valuable contribution to reporting on subjects relating to the gay lifestyle. In the documentary ‘In Limbo: Gay Palestinians’ Beauchemin examines the quagmire in which gay male and female Palestinians find themselves. Palestinian gays often flee to Israel because of discrimination within the Muslim community. Many of them end up working as prostitutes because of their illegal status and difficulty finding work.
Beauchemin says: “I think it’s important to cover ‘other’ topics in Israel, not only the well-known ones such as the security barrier and children with war traumas. Human rights are violated in this type of situation, too and many people don’t know about it.” Beauchemin has worked as a journalist for Radio Netherlands for the past twenty years. He specialises in human rights, children and conflict situations.
David Swatling’s documentary centres on Martha McDevitt-Pugh, founder of the Amsterdam organisation Love Exiles. McDevitt-Pugh lives with her wife in the Netherlands because the United States refuses to recognise her marital status – her partner is not allowed to immigrate. Together with 46 other activists, she travelled with the Marriage Equality Express bus from San Francisco to Washington DC to call attention to the issue of gay marriage.
Both Beauchemin and Swatling have been honoured by the NLGJA in recent years for their coverage of gay and lesbian issues. The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association is made up of journalists as well as others who work in the media such as teachers and journalism students. Its goal is to encourage a fair coverage of gay issues.