CNN’s Coverage of Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls

In the aftermath of the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram, CNN dispatching reporting teams to Chibok, Nigeria, capturing a portrait of a region left unaided by its government in the wake of a horrific abduction. By day we see a region that Boko Haram has terrorized for years attempting to get on with life. By night, members of the community walk the streets with machetes and homemade bows and arrows to protect their families. CNN’s Isha Sesay searched for accountability for this unprotected region, aggressively questioning Nigerian officials whose claims that they had responded to the tragedy were completely at odds with the accounts gathered from the region’s residents, many of whom hid in the bush during the attacks. The news team also found refugees from other parts of Nigeria who were fleeing the terrorist group, giving a sense of the scale of Boko Haram’s hold on the region. For helping to draw the world’s attention to a terrorist group’s ability to hold an entire region in fear, and for shining a light on a government’s inability to protect its own citizens, CNN’s Coverage of the Kidnapped Nigerian School Girls receives a Peabody Award.