Title

“The War on Afghan Women,” “Afghanistan: The Healers” and “Behind Enemy Lines“

Publication

101 East — Al Jazeera English and Foreign Correspondent, ABC

Year

2020

Category

June Andrews Award for Freelance Journalist of the Year

Karishma Vyas is an Emmy and Peabody-nominated journalist, and the winner of both the 2018 and 2020 Freelancer of the Year Awards. She has almost 20 years of experience covering international news for media networks, including Al Jazeera, the ABC and Channel 4 news.

Read an interview with Karishma Vyas.

Judges’ comments:

“This was brilliant storytelling in two countries — Afghanistan and America. Vyas managed to access some of the most sensitive areas of Afghan society, bringing to the screen extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. Her films were compassionate and thoughtful but also hard-hitting. Her despatch from New York was jaw-dropping, not only for the access to the people deeply involved in combating the COVID-19 crisis, but also in the way she allowed those characters to chronicle the dreadful chaos of New York’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.”