Best of the AP

Best of the Week - First Winner April 12, 2024

AP team springs into action after Ecuador raids Mexican embassy to arrest former VP

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When the Ecuadorian government, under the orders of President Daniel Noboa, took the unprecedented action of storming the Mexican Embassy in Quito late on Friday, April 5, AP’s visual team based in the Andean city responded swiftly. They were on the ground during crucial moments of the significant event, which garnered global attention over the weekend and subsequent days.

Freelance video journalist Cesar Olmos and photojournalist Dolores Ochoa captured images and sound of the incensed embassy staff and rapidly filed images of military forces scaling the walls of the building as they entered and seized Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s former vice president, who had previously faced multiple corruption charges and sought refuge in the Mexican embassy several months prior to the raid.

In addition to securing the initial visuals, the AP team was quick to deliver across other formats to publish the details of this unprecedented event.

For comprehensive and quick work to report on the initial events and immediate fallout after an unprecedented international incident, Olmos, Ochoa, Regina Garcia Cano, Megan Janetsky, Gonzalo Solano, Gabriela Molina, David Biller and Sara Espana are Best of the Week — First Winner.

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Best of the Week - Second Winner April 12, 2024

Teamwork and planning are key to success in coverage of 30th anniversary of Rwanda’s genocide

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The breadth of the body of work created by AP’s team in just five days on the ground in Rwanda covering the 30th anniversary of the genocide shows off the skills of storyteller Rodney Muhumuza, supported by our stringer Ignatius Ssuuna and the artistry of new hires Brian Inganga and Jackson Njehia, carrying on a legacy of authoritative AP reporting and explaining of the horrors of 1994 and their consequences.

Arriving in Kigali after weeks of effort to secure visa and press accreditations, the team’s first focus was on reporting on the mass graves that continue to be found.

While the new mass graves underscore the scale of the killings, AP’s reporting uniquely showed how they also illustrate the cracks in the reconciliation process.

As a body of work, focusing on youth, dance, stories of love and reconciliation as well as enduring tensions, the team achieved everything asked of them. Jacqueline Larma, one of AP’s Pulitzer winning team from 1994, was called on to curate a powerful selection of AP’s best work, highlighting the organization’s long-term commitment to the story.

AP’s video packages, with strong fresh color, analysis, carefully selected file and many reasons for optimism secured over 1,500 video hits with clients on Teletrax.

For an extraordinary effort to revisit one of the worst genocides of recent history, the team of Muhumuza, Njehia, Inganga, Ssuuna and Larma are Best of the Week — Second Winner.

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