FRANCE 24 and Mother Jones were awarded the Bronze medal in the Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize category at the United Nations (UN) Correspondents Gala Awards at UN headquarters in New York City on December 12, 2025, for their story with Gaza Humanitarian Foundation whistleblower Anthony Aguilar. The award is for broadcast coverage of the UN, its agencies and field operations.
FRANCE 24’s UN correspondent Jessica Le Masurier, FRANCE 24’s Jerusalem correspondent Claire Duhamel, journalist and cameraman Yves Schaeffner, Mother Jones’s Executive Editor James West, Amanda Pike the director of film and TV and head of Center for Investigative Reporting and Mother Jones’s Digital Producer Sam Van Pykeren all contributed to the story, which was published both by FRANCE 24 and Mother Jones.
Le Masurier and Schaeffner were the first journalists to interview Aguilar on camera on the morning of July 23, 2025. In his crucial testimony he describes the horrors he witnessed at food sites run by the American private firm, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Journalist Yves Schaeffner, President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock, FRANCE 24 UN & NY correspondent Jessica Le Masurier on December 12, 2025 at UN Headquarters in Manhattan. © FRANCE 24
The prize giving was attended by UN ambassadors, UN officials, humanitarians and celebrities, including Spanish actor Javier Bardem and Italian chefs Massimo Bottura and Michele Casadei Massari, as well as media from around the globe. The guest of honour was UN80 President of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock.
Bottura was honoured as Global Advocate of the Year. In his acceptance speech he emphasised that “the future is not technology, but conscience”, adding that for him, cooking does not simply mean feeding people, but “nourishing ideas, communities, and hope”.
Spanish actor Javier Bardem and GHF whistleblower Anthony Aguilar at UN headquarters in NYC, December 12, 2025. © FRANCE 24
Javier Bardem was awarded the UN Global Citizen Award for 2025 for his outspoken human rights advocacy. He used his speech to pay tribute to journalists shining a light on human rights abuses across the globe, particularly those in Gaza. He praised the “unimaginable courage” of Gazan journalists.
Bardem thanked Gazan journalist Mohammed Mhawish, who also attended the awards ceremony, for his bravery. Mhawish recently published a gripping, first-person account for New York magazine, called “Watched, tracked and targeted”, about his life in Gaza, and the devastating psychological impact of living under the terrifying shadow of constant surveillance, which he says has “reshaped daily life for people forced to live inside the matrix” and “reordered our minds”.
Gazan journalist Mohammed Mhawish at UN Headquarters in New York City on December 12, 2025. © Lev Radin
“Many journalists have been killed simply for trying to document reality,” Bardem noted. He added that “Israeli terror has murdered 206 Palestinian journalists and media workers” over the course of the war in Gaza, calling it the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history.
“Truth can be dangerous,” Bardem warned. “Those who pursue the truth deserve protection – not persecution by assassins.”