The award established in 2003 honours the memory of Honorka Hégető who passed away in a car accident. She was editor and correspondent of television channel RTL Klub who was granted the “Tolerance Award” for her reports about vulnerable and underprivileged people in 1999.
“Creators highlighting important social issues and presenting potential answers and solutions to them in their content have been rewarded with the Hégető Honorka Award since 2003”, said Róbert Kotroczó, Chairman of the Hégető Honorka Foundation’s Board of Trustees and News Director of RTL Hungary. “The Award helps us take these issues and also good examples to a wider audience”.
This year’s award winners selected from nearly 70 applications are as follows:
The main prize went to the creators of the documentary titled The Journey of Waste through the River Tisza: from the Ukraine to Hungary (A szemét útja a Tiszán: Ukrajnától Magyarországig) (Telex.hu, Péter Lengyel-Szabó and his co-creators). In this video, creators visit the source of the river Tisza, surrounding mountains, towns and villages of the Subcarpathia to find out where a vast amount of waste travelling to Hungary comes from and what are the complex economic, environmental and social problems underlying this issue.
The jury comprised of journalists János Horvát and Balázs Weyer, as well as Antónia Mészáros, Managing Director of UNICEF in Hungary, granted an award to three other films about environmental protection, life quality and the consequences of climate change.
The staff of hvg.hu including Nikolett Csányi and her co-creators received a shared award for two films: the documentary titled The Carpathian Basin May Become an Agricultural Desert (Mezőgazdasági kultúrsivatag lehet a Kárpát-medencéből) evaluates what can be done to prevent the soil destruction and desertification caused by agricultural production. The other film titled Our Poisons – Sóskút (Mérgeink – Sóskút) shows the fight of the local community against two plants planned to be established in the outskirts of the village including an electrolyte plant and a plant recycling the chemicals output of battery production. The award-winning video of 444.hu (Sándor Czinkóczi, Júlia Halász, Zsófia Szász) is about draught and the farmers of a severely affected region who block channels to flood their own land to keep rainwater in the area.
Gabriella Lukács’s (RTL Hungary/Fókusz) report titled Adult Adoptees (Felnőtt örökbefogadottak) feature three women, Móni, Andi and Kriszti who learnt that they were brought up not by their biological parents in different ways. RTL Klub’s short video shows their struggles with adoption and their attempts to find their roots.
The documentary titled This is Not Drug, This is Poison (Ez nem drog, hanem méreg) was created by journalist Mátyás Kálmán (who previously worked for news portal 24.hu). The film is about destructive designer drugs, the social crisis caused by drug abuse and the people fighting against it including toxicologists, specialists and the Mayor of Józsefváros, Budapest.
This year’s non-governmental award winner is a film titled I Still Remember (Még emlékszem) directed by Flóra Chilton and produced by a partnership of Személyes Történelem Produkció and Északi Támpont Egyesület. This deeply moving video combines Holocaust stories with the images of contemporary Budapest. It revives WWII survivors’ Holocaust stories using animation in the modern public spaces of 21st-century Budapest.
Telenor’s special award went to a video by Gabriella Lukács (RTL Klub, Fókusz). It is about Alex Galamb, a 23-year-old baker, who decided to teach children in Hernádnémeti how to bake when the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit. With his initiative titled “Baking is Good” he aims to show underprivileged Roma children a way out of their dire situation.
The photography award of the program was granted to István Bielik whose photo series published on WMN depicts the daily life of a trans couple. Ivett and Atanáz came to accept themselves and now live an ordinary, genuine and free life after several decades of suppression and suffering.
The awards were presented by jury members including Éva Keleti, Kossuth and Balázs Béla awards-winning photographer, János Horvát and Balázs Weyer journalists, Hajnalka Hégető, Board of Trustees member of Hégető Honorka Foundation and Dr. Márk Erdélyi, Chief Legal and Reputation Officer of Telenor Hungary.
To watch the award winning videos, please visit www.rtl.hu/hegetohonorka
Sponsors of the Hégető Honorka Award: RTL Hungary, Telenor Hungary and the Hégető family.
The plaque of the Hégető Honorka Award was designed by artist Erzsébet Szilágyi.
Fotókredit: Labancz Viktória