Manisha Ganguly’s investigative film Finding My Torturer has been shortlisted for Best Investigation in the Amnesty Media Awards 2023.
The Amnesty Media Awards celebrate outstanding human rights journalism, recognising the courage and determination of journalists and editors who risk their lives to report on human rights cases.
Dr Ganguly is a multi-award winning conflict journalist and filmmaker. She was named Journalist of the Year 2022 by One Young World and has been included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Media and Marketing in Europe.
Produced for the BBC, Finding My Torturer follows the search for a Russian official who tortured at least 11 women following their arrests at an anti-war demonstration. Two of the detainees recorded their abuse and were able to leak audio to the press. Despite international outrage, the Russian authorities did not open a criminal case. Seeking justice, the women set out to find their abuser themselves. Her previous BBC investigative documentary Libya’s Game of Drones won the Best Investigation award at the Asian Media Awards.
Dr Ganguly completed her PhD at the University of Westminster, where she researched the impact that OSINT, AI and automation has had on investigative journalism. She also specialises in using open-source technology to document and expose human rights abuses in conflict zones. Her documentaries have exposed war crimes in Libya and Syria, human trafficking in the Middle East and uncovered the training of the killers of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. She currently works as an Investigations Correspondent at The Guardian, and her documentaries for the BBC World Service have been broadcast to over 300 million people worldwide.
Speaking about her nomination, Ganguly said: “I am delighted to see Finding My Torturer being recognised by the judges at the Amnesty Media awards. The woman anti-war activists who were tortured in a Moscow police station, and hunted down their torturers, did so at great personal risk and their bravery deserves this recognition. I am also happy that the policemen accused in the film have been sanctioned by the EU. I dedicate this to all the anti-war activists in Russia who continue to protest this unjust invasion of Ukraine, despite the risk of a prison sentence.”
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