Al Jazeera wins Amnesty International award for Colorado River reporting | News

Journalists Megan O’Toole and Jillian Kestler-D’Amours won an award for reporting on indigenous rights in the US.

Al Jazeera English online was awarded the top prize at the 29th Amnesty International Canada Media Awards for its reporting on the indigenous struggle for water rights in the southwestern United States.

Amnesty International Canada announced Thursday that the long-running Al Jazeera interactive feature Crisis on the Colorado: The Indigenous fight for water rights won the 2023-2024 media award.

The awards “recognize excellence in human rights reporting by journalists based in Canada and Canadian journalists reporting abroad”.

Published in April 2023, Crisis on the Colorado examined how indigenous communities dependent on the water-rich Colorado River are asserting their water rights in the face of severe droughts due to climate change.

The push comes as authorities at all levels are forced to consider water cuts as they try to stop the collapse of the river, which stretches 2,330km (1,450-miles) from the US state of Colorado to Mexico, and supplies water to more than 40 million people.

To tell the story, Al Jazeera reporters Megan O’Toole and Jillian Kestler-D’Amours met with Indigenous leaders in Colorado, Arizona and California, and traveled by car, boat and small plane to key locations along the river, including Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Their report included a rich, written narrative with images, videos, maps, charts and other interactive features.

Across the region, Indigenous community leaders are demanding a seat at the table – and insisting that their water rights must be protected after generations of neglect and exclusion.

“We have to look at a different way of how we respect the river, how we manage the river, and we have to look at future generations,” Nora McDowell, former longtime chairwoman of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, told Al Jazeera.

“We have to protect you.”

On Thursday, Amnesty International Canada congratulated Al Jazeera English and other award winners for their work to profile “individuals and communities who have shown incredible courage and resilience in the face of adversity”.

“We congratulate the winners on their incredible success and thank the rights holders who shared their stories by speaking the truth with courage and power through the media,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking secretary-general.

Crisis on the Colorado was supported by The Water Desk, an independent journalism initiative based at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

Aerial photography used in the long-form feature was made possible by dedicated LightHawk aircraft.