News and Nominations
BY Stephen Talbot

FRONTLINE/World reporter Sam Kiley embedded with a Canadian unit in Afghanistan.

It was a pleasure to learn this week that three FRONTLINE/World stories have been nominated for News & Documentary Emmy Awards. And it was particularly gratifying for those of us who work primarily on this website since all three of the stories are nominees in the Emmy's New Approaches categories, which recognize online stories and video. The nominees are...

Afghanistan: The Other War

Moscow's Sex and the City

Dubai: Night Secrets

The winners will be announced September 22 at a ceremony in New York. To see the full list of Emmy nominations, click here.

Our congratulations to Victoria Gamburg, who reported and produced the story about Russia's version of "Sex and the City," comparing it to real life for single women in Moscow. Bravos, also, to reporter Sam Kiley and producer Olly Lambert for their unblinking look at the challenges facing NATO troops in Afghanistan. Both of these were strong broadcast stories that are enhanced online with special features: slideshows, behind-the-scenes military interviews, book excerpts, maps and background links.

"Dubai: Night Secrets," an investigation of prostitution in the Gulf state, also collected a People's Voice Award at the 2008 Webbys.

The third nominee, Mimi Chakarova and Sachi Cunningham's story about prostitution in Dubai, is one of our Rough Cut series of videos especially commissioned for the web. This undercover investigation has already earned a People's Voice Webby Award for best individual episode in an online news and politics series. It has also provoked a long, spirited debate with emails pouring in from the Gulf region and around the world.

Last year, we won an Emmy for Marco Werman and John MacGibbon's online video, "Libya: Out of the Shadow," and this year we took home a Webby for our whole series of documentary videos. This is something we take great pride in -- always trying to find new ways to tell stories online. We appreciate the recognition and promise to keep pushing the boundaries of serious journalism on the web.

And while we're at it, a shout out to our colleagues at FRONTLINE for receiving Emmy nominations for two very fine documentaries: Marcela Gaviria and Martin Smith's "Gangs of Iraq" and Miri Navasky and Karen O'Connor's "The Undertaking."

International Reporting Project/FRONTLINE/World Fellow Announced

We also want to congratulate Dallas Morning News staff writer Macarena Hernandez for being selected for a Fall 2008 Fellowship by the International Reporting Project (IRP) based at The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.

Hernandez, who will use her Fellowship to report for FRONTLINE/World in Mexico, was one of eight journalists chosen for the prestigious program. An alumnus of U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, Hernandez reported "The Ballad of Juan Quezada" for us in 2005, still one of the more inspiring stories we've ever aired.

"We're delighted to partner with FRONTLINE/World ... in supporting more overseas reporting at a time when so many news organizations have cut back on international coverage," said John Schidlovsky, director of the IRP.

To see the full list of 2008 IRP Fellows, visit their website.

The next deadline for applications for the IRP Fellowships is April 1, 2009 for the program to be conducted in the fall of 2009. For more information, call (202) 663-7761, fax (202) 663-7762, email irp@jhu.edu.