NOS loses out on International Emmy for MH17 ceremony

Dutch broadcaster NOS lost out on a chance to win an Emmy award for international news at a ceremony that took place Monday night in New York. The television broadcast of the National Day of Mourning in honour of the victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was given the nomination.

The July 23, 2014 broadcast featured live coverage of the arrival at Eindhoven Airport of the first victim remains from the crash site in eastern Ukraine. A moving ceremony at the airfield was held as coffin after coffin were removed from the military transport and placed into hearses, which then drove in a lengthy procession to a military barracks in Hilversum.

The award eventually went to a Canadian broadcaster for its broadcast of the Ebola virus in Liberia. Two other non-American contenders were nominated for the award.

NOS boss Jan de Jong, in an interview after the nomination announcement, told AD that this is a nomination that he would rather not have received, stating that the reason for the nomination was simply too sad. It was, de Jong said, extremely honourable that the broadcaster was nominated.