Moyers’ South Africa Documentary Honored

A Bill Moyers documentary on the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa won the highest honor at the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for broadcast journalism.

“Facing the Truth With Bill Moyers,” a two-hour documentary produced for Public Affairs Television, earned a Gold Baton for its unflinching examination of South Africa’s violent history.

“Much of the violence on television is gratuitous,” Columbia University President George Rupp said Wednesday. “But sometimes it is key to the story, so that we can prepare ourselves for the years ahead.”

The jury also awarded 12 Silver Batons for excellence in television and radio journalism in 1998-99.

Those winners were:

* The ABC News show “20/20” and Diane Sawyer for “The Unwanted Children of Russia,” a story about that country’s neglect and abuse of orphans.

* The CBS News show “60 Minutes II” and Bob Simon for “The Shame of Srebrenica,” a report on the massacre of Muslims by Serbs in the 1995 Bosnian war. The remains of nearly 2,500 people have been found, and as many as 8,000 men and boys are missing.

* WGBH-TV in Boston and “Frontline” for “The Triumph of Evil.” The documentary, aired on PBS stations, examines the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis in 1994 by the Hutu majority in Rwanda.

* CNN and correspondent Candy Crowley for her coverage of the impeachment and trial of President Clinton.

* New England Cable News in Newton, Mass., for a series of in-depth reports on breast cancer, AIDS and mandatory sentencing of criminals.

* KTVX-TV in Salt Lake City and correspondent Chris Vanocur for investigative reports on the Olympic bribery scandal.

* WTHR-TV in Indianapolis for “Guarding the Guardians,” an investigative series into alleged abuses by the court-appointed guardians of Ruth Lilly, an elderly pharmaceutical heiress.

* WMTW-TV in Auburn, Maine, and Christine Young for investigative reports on the Christian Civic League, a conservative lobbying group in Maine.

* Youth Radio of Berkeley, Calif., for “E-Mails From Kosovo,” aired on National Public Radio. It followed a series of e-mail messages to an American high school student and an Albanian schoolgirl in Kosovo.

* SoundVision Productions of Berkeley, Calif., for “The DNA Files,” a nine-hour radio series on genetic science aired on National Public Radio.

* “P.O.V.” and filmmaker Walter Brock for “If I Can’t Do It.” The documentary on a severely disabled yet fiercely independent man aired on PBS.

* Producer Stanley Nelson for “The Black Press: Soldier Without Swords,” a documentary on the little-known history of black newspapers that aired on PBS.