Today we unveil the longlist for our Best News Feature category in this year’s INSP Awards.
INSP’s Awards for Best News Feature and Best Cultural Feature are drawn from contributions our unique News Service, which allows street papers to share content with their international peers.
In this way, hundreds of articles are made available for free to INSP’s member street papers.
Our Best News Feature Award recognises the best original story, investigative feature, ‘scoop’ or news interview uncovered by a street paper in the last year. The nominated entries demonstrate outstanding journalistic depth and accuracy, as well as original thinking.
Our top ten, featured below, now go forward to our international editorial judging panel, who will choose the five finalists. These will be announced in early August, and the winner will be revealed at the Global Street Paper Summit in Manchester.
The nominees:
Pia has found a home – and is saving millions for Gothenburg
By Johan Frisk
Almost 1,500 people in Gothenburg are classified as “emergency homeless”. One third of these are children. This year, the municipality will pay almost one billion Swedish kronor to give them a roof over their heads. The cost is not just economic – families with children are forced to live in hostels or small single hotel rooms for months on end. Faktum investigates the new homelessness industry in their home city – and the possible solution from Housing First.
Love and loss: surviving the Holocaust
By Birgit Müller
The Nazis took everything from Leon Shulkin; his family, his home, his future. Yet they couldn’t break the man from Minsk. Love saved this Holocaust survivor. He tells the story of his eventful, moving life.
Child of the revolution: street vendor’s exclusive interview with Che Guevara’s daughter
Interview by Hus Forbi vendor Wesley, text by Poul Struve Nielsen
Aleida Guevara is a daughter of the most famous revolutionary of the 20th century, Che Guevara. Adorned on a million t-shirts and posters since his execution 50 years ago, Che Guevara’s face is an emblem of revolution. In an exclusive street paper interview, Hus Forbi vendor Wesley talks to the 56-year-old paediatrician about being a child of her father’s revolution and a career looking after children in Cuba.
Meeting the Greek fisherman who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
By Dimitris Kiousopoulos
Fisherman Stratis Valamios has saved numerous lives of refugees arriving on the Greek island of Lesvos in the past year. His humanitarian actions led to a nomination for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. In an interview with Shedia, Valamios shares the impact of living in a village which has seen half a million people risk their lives to reach Europe.
Sniffing out the top canine sleuths for Norway’s police force
By Trond Ola Tilseth
The police force in the Norwegian town of Trøndelag is trying to increase the number of drug sniffer dogs. It is easier said than done – only two out of ten dogs make it through the rigorous training.
From Selma to Congress: Street Sense vendors meet civil rights hero (and Trump bête noir) John Lewis
By Josh Maxey, Angie Whitehurst and Ken Martin
A longstanding hero of the civil rights movement, Democratic Rep. John Lewis hit the news this week after he controversially became the latest target of Donald Trump’s Twitter rage. Following the online insults, more than 50 Democratic lawmakers said they would boycott President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. In an exclusive U.S. street paper interview, ahead of the spat, Lewis spoke to Street Sense vendors Angie Whitehurst and Ken Martin about his career – from taking his first political steps in 1963 alongside Martin Luther King Jr to being the present-day “conscience of Congress”.
Charlotte protests: vendor’s view from epicentre of unrest
By Matt Shaw
Edward Smalls sells Speak Up magazine every weekday in uptown Charlotte. This puts him in close proximity to the epicenter of the heated protests that exploded in the aftermath of the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. On the morning of 22 September, following a violent night of protest that left one dead, Edward talked with Speak Up editor Matt Shaw about the protests, gun violence, and his own story.
Refugee couple fight to be reunited for their wedding
By Dominik Galliker
In December 2015 Laila, a refugee from Yemen, and Toufik, a Moroccan looking for a better life, went to the immigration office to get papers for their wedding. Instead the young couple were separated. He was arrested and deported. Surprise tells the story of their fight to be reunited.
Comfort Women: the Korean victims behind Japanese military sexual slavery
By Seong-Cheol Bae
In July 1942, Ok-Sun Lee was 16 years old. Whilst out on an errand she was abducted in broad daylight by the Japanese military and held as a sex slave or ‘comfort woman’. She was one of an estimated 400,000 Korean women who were victims of Japanese military sexual slavery during the country’s period of colonisation. She spoke to Big Issue Korea at one of the ‘Wednesday Demonstrations’ in Seoul, where the remaining Comfort Women are still searching for an apology from the Japanese government.
The workers who revolutionised Florida’s tomato farming industry
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely
Only a few years ago Florida tomato farming was a byword for modern day slavery. That was until the Coalition of Immokalee Workers revolutionised the Sunshine State’s agricultural industry. The Contributor speaks to Nely Rodriguez, Floridian tomato farmer and CIW activist, who shares what life was like for a before the coalition brought pressure on big name brands such as Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. To date, thanks to its campaigning, there have been nine major investigations and federal prosecutions have freed over 1,200 Florida farmworkers from captivity and forced labour.
Don’t forget to keep checking back this week as we reveal more nominees for the 2017 #INSPAwards. Take a look at the nominees we’ve already announced here.
