PETALING JAYA: They made history last year as the first-ever Malaysian outfit to be nominated for the prestigious Peabody Awards, and now, they’ve done it again.
The Star’s acclaimed R.AGE investigative documentary team is among the 60 Peabody Award nominees for the second year running, making the cut from a field of 1,200 submissions from around the world.
R.AGE’s nomination this year is for its Student/Trafficked investigative documentary project, for which the team went undercover to expose an international human trafficking network operating through Malaysian colleges and educational institutions.
The journalists then went on to advocate tirelessly for systemic changes to safeguard against student trafficking, contributing to a drastic reduction in reported cases.
WATCH: R.AGE’s Peabody-nominated documentary, Student/Trafficked
Other nominees this year include Netflix, HBO, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and The New York Times.
“To see our name on the Peabody website, alongside these media organisations that we have so much respect for, it’s just unreal,” said R.AGE deputy executive editor and producer Ian Yee.
The Peabody Awards was set up in 1941 as broadcast media’s equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize, the United States’ top prize for print journalism.
Today, the Peabody is considered one of the most prestigious American awards for broadcast and digital media, holding steadfastly to its motto of honouring “stories that matter”.
Notable past winners include Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman, Sir David Attenborough, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report.
R.AGE’s first nomination in 2018 was for its Predator In My Phone project, an undercover investigation on online child sexual predators in Malaysia which contributed to the passing of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act (2017).
“I have to salute my heroes – all the journalists at R.AGE who risk so much and work so hard for these projects. To spend nearly a year undercover investigating a human trafficking syndicate is obviously not easy, and it’s something that really stays with you.
“Honestly, I get inspired and energised by their work every single day, and not just because of their talent, but more because of their dedication to using journalism to help people, to make a positive impact despite all the seemingly insurmountable challenges,” said Yee.
The 78th Peabody Awards will be presented at a red-carpet event in New York on May 18. It will be hosted by Pulitzer-winning journalist and producer Ronan Farrow, whose stories in The New Yorker exposed the first sexual-assault allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein, a catalyst in the #MeToo movement.
Yee said he looked forward to having R.AGE represent Malaysia at the ceremony “as the tiny underdog among all the major global organisations”.“We’re not sure if we’ll be able to make it for the ceremony since it’s all the way in New York, but just knowing that the name ‘R.AGE’ will be mentioned at some point is good enough. That’s the Malaysian flag flying right there,” added Yee.
WATCH: Hasan Minhaj’s opening monologue at the 77th Peabody Awards
Veteran actress and singer Rita Moreno will be receiving a Career Achievement Award this year, making her one of only three people to attain “PEGOT” status by winning all five major US awards – the Peabodys, Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Tonys.
The only others to have achieved the PEGOT are Barbra Streisand and Mike Nichols.
“We haven’t even won the Peabody, but the PEGOT’s definitely the goal now,” said Yee jokingly. “I guess we’ll just have to start producing music, theatre and TV shows.”
Find out more about R.AGE’s award-winning work at fb.com/thestarRAGE or youtube.com/RageOnlineTV.
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