Portuguese EBU Member RTP won the 2012 Gunnar Høidahl Award for Excellence in the Eurovision News Exchange today, at the seventh EBU News Assembly, in Barcelona.

The annual award honours the EBU Member considered by the Eurovision newsroom in Geneva to have best exemplified the spirit of solidarity that is the bedrock of News Exchange.

RTP was commended for its “consistently strong coverage from Portugal, as well as from Mozambique and Angola”.

Presenting the award, Eurovision Head of News Exchanges, Sam Dubberley, said: “Despite being faced with acute economic pressure the RTP team has consistently epitomized the community values that are the Eurovision News Exchange’s unique strength.”

He later added: “The News Exchange is what its participants make it. When Members commit fully to this ethos and wholeheartedly pool their resources, we all reap the greatest benefit. That is when we outstrip the competition and leave the agencies standing.”

Head of RTP’s Eurovision Desk Luisa Mariano accepts the Gunnar Høidahl Award

As she received the honour, Head of RTP’s Eurovision Desk Luisa Mariano said: “We have always tried to make the most of the resources we have in spite of ever smaller budgets. I hope this award can be a strong argument in favour of public service broadcasting.”

The other candidates were:

• ERT (Greece) for maintaining a high level of contribution and assistance to the Membership during difficult times
• ITN (UK) for excellent coverage from the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games as a non-rights holder
• NRK (Norway) for its coverage of the Anders Breivik trial and the anniversary of the Utoya and Oslo attacks

The two-day EBU News Assembly opened on 13 November in Barcelona.

The annual meeting is where journalists and executives from EBU Members take administrative and strategic decisions about the EBU’s News services and assess the role of PSM in the evolving multimedia news industry.