Featured Honorable Mention

AP team documents accounts of Belarus election fraud

Daria Litvinova, Kostya Manenkov and Sergei Grits

AP photographer Emilio Morenatti recognized for a week filled with compelling coverage.

Rarely does a Best of the Week award to go to a single AP journalist for work on a variety of stories. But the consistent excellence in the images of Barcelona-based Emilio Morenatti, chief photographer for the Iberian Peninsula, moved the judges to make an exception. Morenatti delivered exceptional coverage that distilled some of the biggest stories of 2020 in just a week’s worth of photos.

In sweeping narratives like the COVID-19 pandemic and the migrant crisis, sometimes the people caught up in the maelstrom can be lost. But as Morenatti’s coverage demonstrates, they can also show the very essence of the story.

At the start of the week, Morenatti worked with AP’s Enterprise team and Barcelona-based journalist Renata Brito to shine a light on the treacherous, little-known journey of migrants across a stretch of the Atlantic from the African continent to the Canary Islands. His poignant photos of empty boats, rows of dumped clothing and migrants living under bridges with virtually nothing were haunting and powerful. Editors at The Guardian agreed, giving this photo a spot in their “20 Photographs of the Week”:

Ap 20245362405799 Migrant Boat 2000 — A police officer at Gran Canaria Island in Spain inspects a boat where 15 Malians were found dead adrift in the Atlantic, Aug. 20, 2020. The 15 lifeless men were spotted inside the boat by a Spanish plane the previous day. Police collected what was left behind as evidence: a wallet, a dozen cell phones, windbreakers and galoshes.

AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Not one to coast after a major assignment, he then delivered first rate, speedy spot coverage of soccer star Lionel Messi’s spat with Barcelona, daily life and more.

Messi Mask — At left, a poster of F.C. Barcelona soccer superstar Lionel Messi is reflected in the window of a team store in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 1, 2020. Messi and the team engaged in discussions to keep him on the team after he told the team he wanted to leave. At right, a man wearing face mask walks past advertising for a private clinic in Barcelona, Aug. 31, 2020.

AP Photos / Emilio Morenatti

And then, in a fitting conclusion to the week, his hard work and contact-building paid off in the best possible way with access to a COVID-19 patient as he was wheeled out of a hospital intensive care unit to enjoy the sun and fresh air of the Barcelona seaside. Morenatti’s moving and memorable series of photos was used the world over, and earned him a rare second spot in The Guardian’s gallery.

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Francisco Espana, 60, looks out at the Mediterranean Sea from a promenade next to the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020. Espana spent 52 days in the intensive care unit at the hospital due to coronavirus, but on this day he was allowed by his doctors to spend almost ten minutes at the seaside as part of his recovery therapy.

AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

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A member of the medical staff makes preparations for Francisco Espana to be taken out to the seaside, at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020. The hospital is studying how short trips to the beach may help COVID-19 patients recover from long and traumatic intensive hospital care. The study is part of a program to “humanize” intensive care units.

AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

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Medical staff transport Francisco Espana to a waterfront promenade on the Mediterranean Sea, at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020.

AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

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A friend waves to Francisco Espana as the COVID-19 patient is transported to see the Mediterranean Sea at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020.

AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

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Francisco Espana gazes at the Mediterranean Sea from a promenade next to the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020. Researchers have anecdotally noticed that even 10 minutes in front of the blue sea waters can improve a patient’s emotional attitude.

AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

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Patient Francisco Espana spends time in front of the beach outside the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020.

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Hospital del Mar patient Francisco Espana is pushed back to the hospital after spending a few minutes in front of the Mediterranean Sea in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020.

AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

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Medical team members transfer Francisco Espana to another bed as he moves out of the intensive care unit at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 7, 2020. Espana spent 55 days in the ICU with COVID-19 and was being moved to a normal room of the hospital.

AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

A remarkable week by any measure. Each of his assignments reflected the highest standards of visual journalism and a level of emotional investment that few can match, earning Morenatti AP’s Best of the Week accolade.

Honorable Mentions:

AP team documents accounts of Belarus election fraud

Daria Litvinova, Kostya Manenkov and Sergei Grits

gained the trust of poll workers in Belarus who gave exclusive, on-camera interviews detailing extensive fraud in the Aug. 9 election.
Protesters and opposition politicians have called the election rigged since the moment the results were announced showing authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko won with 80% support. Reports of fraud at the polls have appeared on social media and in some local independent media, but often featured anonymous interviews and piecemeal accounts. Litvinova and Manenkov wanted to go deeper.
They reached out to poll workers who at first were too afraid to speak on-the-record and on camera – especially since protesters had been beaten by police and arrested. The pair worked tirelessly to gain the trust of several poll workers, eventually convincing several poll workers to share their stories with the AP, on camera and with still photos by Grits.
What the workers told them was stunning: One said she was asked to sign a document summing up the results with the vote totals blank before voting ended for the day. Another who pointed out violations during the vote counting was fired on the spot. A third said he falsified results to favor Lukashenko and was now overcome with guilt for betraying the trust of the voters.

As they worked on this story and continued to cover the protests, Manenkov and AP Russia-based photographer Dmitri Lovetsky were arrested and ordered out of Belarus. Minsk-based photographer Grits and reporter Yuras Karmanau also were arrested and had their press credentials revoked. As a result, the two made the decision to leave Belarus.
https://bit.ly/32dyjv0
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Desperate African migrants risk deadly Atlantic crossing

Renato Brito and Emilio Morenatti

revealed that migration from Africa to Europe is still happening in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic – and shifting from the Mediterranean to the deadly Atlantic route. The Barcelona-based journalists traveled to the Canary Islands and saw firsthand boats full of migrants – including some who had died – arriving on the Spanish archipelago.
The pair was kicked out of the port area for trying to document arrivals because it’s such a sensitive subject, and many sources, under government pressure, stopped talking to the AP. But the AP team worked around the restrictions, getting access to migrants and spending time with them. Brito and Morenatti reported that more than 250 people are known to have died or gone missing so far this year, and at least 20 bodies were recovered in the week we there, evidence of the extreme risk taken on the ocean crossing.
The story attracted attention in Europa and Africa with high engagement, particularly for the photos and video.

AP analysis: Absentee ballot rejections could soar in battlegrounds

Christina Cassidy and Frank Bajak

analyzed voter turnout and ballot rejection data, finding that the number of absentee ballot rejections is likely to soar in key presidential battleground states this fall – enough that it could tip the balance in a close race. They also found the problem is more pronounced in some urban areas where Democratic votes are concentrated and rejections trended higher during this year’s primaries.

Cassidy and Bajak looked at how many people voted by mail in this year’s post-Covid primaries, the percentage of those ballots that were rejected and the state’s turnout during the 2016 presidential election to project how many absentee ballots could get rejected in the coming election if those numbers remained stable. Their analysis found between 185,000 and 292,000 voters in the seven key states they examined could be disenfranchised. https://bit.ly/3hfnXyP

Breaking news from NBA’s suspended playoffs

Tim Reynolds and Brian Mahoney

teamed up to break news from the NBA’s “Disney bubble” as teams suspended play over racial justice issues. Reynolds got the only on-the-record interview with an executive board member of the National Basketball Players Association, speaking with Andre Iguodala on the day that players decided that they would remain isolated at Walt Disney World and continue the postseason despite the protests.

The interview followed Reynolds’ scoop that the NBA’s owners had called an emergency meeting and that a three-hour meeting between players and coaches led to no consensus on how to go forward. The interview with Iguodala, and supplemental reporting by his colleague Mahoney, led to AP being able to break the news that teams would resume practice Friday and playing games Saturday.
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A year after AP report, charges against former Mississippi priest

Michael Rezendes

followed up with the latest developments from his 2019 reporting that uncovered sexual assault by clergy, settled on the cheap in rural Missisippi. That reporting has now prompted sexual assault charges against a former Catholic priest.
A year ago, Rezendes and AP colleagues unraveled the case of a former Franciscan friar accused of sexually assaulting three impoverished Black boys. Spurred by this reporting, Mississippi authorities convened a grand jury that handed up sexual battery charges and had the man extradited from Wisconsin. Without the original work of Rezendes, there would have been no criminal case.
Said La Jarvis Love, one of the men who told his story to AP: “I’m happy that me saying something got something done.”
https://bit.ly/3m7ZShh
https://bit.ly/2FnUUMm

AP: Breonna Taylor protesters find growing sense of community

Claire Galofaro and Dylan Lovan

showed the human side of the national reckoning on race, revealing how a sense of community and purpose has emerged among the small band of demonstrators who have gathered for weeks in search of justice for Breonna Taylor at Louisville’s “Injustice Square.”

The Louisville-based reporters covered the protests that emerged just after Taylor was killed by police in March, and then returned to check in on a small core group of demonstrators who had hung in for the long haul. They found a group that had discovered in themselves a sense of community and purpose greater than many of them had known before.

Galofaro told the story through the eyes of Amber Brown, a Louisville bus driver who feels so connected to Taylor and so committed to justice that she returns day after day to the small public square where the protesters gather.
https://bit.ly/32iqHay
https://bit.ly/3m8Tqq6

Best of the Week — First Winner

Sept. 11, 2020

From migrants to COVID, Morenatti delivers a week of outstanding images

Featured Honorable Mention

AP team documents accounts of Belarus election fraud

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