ESPN Deportes receives Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding News Series.

ESPN Deportes has been honored for its excellence in journalism with the prestigious 2008 Edward R. Murrow Award presented by the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA). The network received the prestigious award in the “Outstanding News Series” category for a three-part SportsCenter feature series titled “Sobrevivientes” (Still Alive), about the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in Argentina’s Andres Mountain on October 13, 1972.

ESPN Deportes’ Special Feature Unit team spent two weeks in South America interviewing several people, including three survivors and the man who found them after the “Andes Flight Disaster.” The three-part series was aired December 2007 on ESPN Deportes’ SportsCenter and in English on ESPN’s Outside the Lines on the 35th anniversary (December 23, 1972) of the day the survivors managed to regain contact with the world, after 72 days spent in the most inhospitable surroundings just trying to remain alive. The ordeal of the 16 survivors, who battled, dehydration, injuries and frostbite, and who in order to avoid starvation were forced to eat the flesh of the dead, was recounted in the1993 film Alive.

In all, 54 news organizations were honored with 77 awards out of an initial pool of 3,459 entries from several hundred news organizations. RTNDA has honored outstanding achievements in electronic journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971. Murrow’s pursuit of excellence in journalism embodies the spirit of the awards that carry his name.