The investigation Obstructed Births about Obstetric Violence in Cuba, made by a group of Cuban journalists, won this Thursday at the Roche Prize for Health Journalism, which gives the Gabo Foundation in the written journalism category. The eleventh edition of the award also highlights the most famous works in the categories of daily coverage and audiovisual journalism.
During the award ceremony, held in Panama City, journalist Claudia Padrón Cueto, one of the authors of Obstructed Births, thanked the women who shared their birth experiences for the report and highlighted the importance of this achievement for the independent press of the island.
In addition to Padrón, the other two authors of the award-winning work are all journalism graduates from the University of Havana, Isabel Echemendia and Cynthia de la Cantera. As “collaborating authors,” they included Mary Antoinette Colunga and Darcy Borrero.
Obstructed Births was recognized by Global Investigative Journalism Net (GIJN) in 2022 as one of the best research projects in Latin America.
The jury, made up of the journalists María Isabel Torres (Peru) and Érica Montenegro (Brazil), and the medical advisor Melisa Pereyra (Argentina), promoted this work for the use of different testimonies of women that victims of obstetric violence in Cubamanagede to “illustrate the magnitude of a problem that remains hidden due to the lack of information and the secrecy of the Cuban State”.
In addition, he emphasized the use of a variety of journalistic and social science tools, which makes this work worthy of the award.
The Roche Prize for Health Journalism This is an initiative of Roche Latin America and the Technical Secretariat of the Gabo Foundation “which seeks to recognize excellence and promote quality journalistic work in coverage of health issues in Latin America”.
In this edition, the Roche Prize received a total of 698 applications in three contest categories. In each category, he was selected for a winning work and one that has an honorable mention under the theme “Challenges facing health care.” In addition, among the nominations in three categories, one piece received the honorable mention of Solutions Journalism for standing out as unique in the use of this journalistic method.
The winning pieces explore important issues for health in Latin America, like adolescent mental health disorders in Argentina, obstetric violence in Cuba, and the culture of organ transplantation in Brazil. The authors were granted participation in a training programint Health Journalism, which includes attending an in-person workshop to be held in Medellín (Colombia) in the first half of 2024.
In the category of audiovisual journalism, organ transplant was won by journalists Eduardo Prestes Diefenbach, Caco Barcellos, Nathalia Tavolieri, and Mayara Teixeira from Brazil. En Daily Coverage won the award for “The devastating wave of psychologicalDisorderss in adolescents”, said reporter María Ayuso, from Argentina.
The Honorable Mention of Journalism Solutions Ramiro Escobar La Cruz received it for Hope, who sails the Ucayali Rivera report, telling the story of Forth Hope, a boat sailing the Amazon rivers in Peru to get the medical attention of people from the towns and villages of this region, remote communities where there are no public health centers or medical services.
