Until kicked out
Barbara Lüthi, SF's China correspondent, has been honored with the «CNN Journalist of the Year 2008» award for a courageous report.
Barbara Lüthi has been interested in the development in China for many years. On the one hand, China shows an insane dynamism with a gigantic economic growth, on the other hand there are the farmers who have almost nothing and are even worse off due to land expropriations. "This gap interests me and at the same time the difficulty of reporting from this country," says the China correspondent of Swiss television.
For a "Rundschau" report on "Land Expropriation in China," she has now been named Journalist of the Year by CNN. A jury of well-known editors-in-chief from Focus, SF, RTL, National Geographic, DW-World, ORF and Süddeutsche Zeitung judged over 300 contributions from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In the print category, Alexander Stefanidis won with his first report on Barack Obama's grandmother in Kenya. The story has been printed 40 times so far "and copied endlessly," as jury member Ueli Haldimann pointed out in his laudation. Last year's winner Chris¬toph Feuerstein was "offered four book contracts" after his research on Natascha Kampusch. A top-class round, then, in which the Swiss journalist emerged as the overall winner. She had already won the TV category in 2005 with a report on working conditions in Chinese toy factories.
Barbara Lüthi studied economics in Zurich and languages in Sydney. After starting as a VJ at various stations, she joined "Rundschau" in 2001 and has now been in Beijing since 2006. Her husband Tomas Etzler works as a correspondent for Czech television. For her research, Lüthi works with a Chinese producer. She finds it important to act as a mouthpiece for local colleagues in a country where freedom of expression is limited. Sometimes, she says, she has to be diplomatic when Lüthi deals with authorities. "But I fight to expose unjust things, and that's what I'm nominated for here," she explained at the award show.
Her stories are mostly about the contrast between city and country. "That's why I'm there. There are dollar millionaires and farmers who have nothing." Talking about it makes sense to Barbara Lüthi. She has no fear. "The worst that can happen to me is that I'll be deported."
Andreas Panzeri
For a "Rundschau" report on "Land Expropriation in China," she has now been named Journalist of the Year by CNN. A jury of well-known editors-in-chief from Focus, SF, RTL, National Geographic, DW-World, ORF and Süddeutsche Zeitung judged over 300 contributions from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In the print category, Alexander Stefanidis won with his first report on Barack Obama's grandmother in Kenya. The story has been printed 40 times so far "and copied endlessly," as jury member Ueli Haldimann pointed out in his laudation. Last year's winner Chris¬toph Feuerstein was "offered four book contracts" after his research on Natascha Kampusch. A top-class round, then, in which the Swiss journalist emerged as the overall winner. She had already won the TV category in 2005 with a report on working conditions in Chinese toy factories.
Barbara Lüthi studied economics in Zurich and languages in Sydney. After starting as a VJ at various stations, she joined "Rundschau" in 2001 and has now been in Beijing since 2006. Her husband Tomas Etzler works as a correspondent for Czech television. For her research, Lüthi works with a Chinese producer. She finds it important to act as a mouthpiece for local colleagues in a country where freedom of expression is limited. Sometimes, she says, she has to be diplomatic when Lüthi deals with authorities. "But I fight to expose unjust things, and that's what I'm nominated for here," she explained at the award show.
Her stories are mostly about the contrast between city and country. "That's why I'm there. There are dollar millionaires and farmers who have nothing." Talking about it makes sense to Barbara Lüthi. She has no fear. "The worst that can happen to me is that I'll be deported."
Andreas Panzeri
