Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) has won the 2024 Gunnar Høidahl Award for Excellence in the Eurovision News Exchange in recognition of their consistently strong engagement, variety of content and script quality. 

Two new awards were also presented at the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) annual News Assembly session on 20 and 21 November in Vilnius, Lithuania.

France Télévisions won the Foreign Coverage Excellence Award for an extensive range of international stories, including conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. The Breaking News Excellence Award went to Slovak Television and Radio for rapid reports that led coverage of the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico in May.

The Eurovision News Exchange (EVN) supports EBU Members and the critical role of public service media in delivering the most relevant and trustworthy coverage through round-the-clock access to live and edited news stories.

“We are very proud about winning the Gunnar Høidahl Award,” said Esther Bootsma, Head of the Foreign News desk at NOS and a member of the EBU's News Committee.

“It is not only a tribute to our excellent EVN desk but also to our foreign correspondents and our reporters in The Netherlands who do so many good and interesting stories that fortunately find their way to the EVN Members.”

Nominees for the Gunnar Høidahl Award and the other prizes are put forward by the EBU’s Geneva news editors and the winner is selected by the entire News Exchange team. 

Emilio San Pedro, Head of EVN, described the overall engagement of NOS as “exemplary” and hailed the Dutch broadcaster’s EVN producer Sven van Bijsterveldt and his team for their close contact with the Geneva desk and opportune delivery of quality news items.   

“Sven and his colleagues have developed an unparalleled skill for knowing exactly what soundbite or news package the News Exchange and our Members need on a breaking or developing Dutch story – be it political or cultural,” said San Pedro.

“This knack for knowing what will resonate in Europe extends to the coverage by NOS foreign correspondents reporting from a war zone or an election or another news event in other parts of the world. We commend NOS for their tireless efforts.”

For van Bijsterveldt, the heavy competition of strong coverage made the award even more special for NOS.

“With so many major news stories going on this year, and with the EBU Members offering so many high-quality items in abundance, it is an absolute pleasure and honour to receive this award,” he said. “I am very happy to take it back to NOS this year – with many thanks to our colleagues in Geneva, of course.”

EVN is the largest video and audio news exchange of its kind, providing broadcast services for journalists worldwide. The unique service is based on the shared values of solidarity, reciprocity and cooperation among EBU Members who have been sharing news content every day for more than 60 years.