The documentary "Presumed Guilty," which details the shortcomings of the Mexican judicial system, won an Emmy for best investigative journalism, reported CNN México.
The documentary was produced by Roberto Hernández and Layda Negrete, two Mexican lawyers and public policy doctoral students at the University of California, Berkeley. The piece follows the judicial process surrounding José Antonio Zúñiga, a street vendor in Mexico City sentenced to 20 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
Presunto Culpable has won 20 international film festival awards but the Emmy is its highest recognition to date. The documentary has been seen by two million people in Mexico and sold more tickets than Hollywood blockbusters like Black Swan and The King's Speech, according to the Notimex agency. In July, the film was mentioned on NPR.
In March, a Mexican judge tried to stop the distribution of the film through a temporary suspension order. The order was later removed and the film continued showing in theaters. See a preview of the documentary below.
Brazil also took an Emmy for best international television news. TV Globo's news program Jornal Nacional won for its coverage of the 2010 police occupation of the Complexo do Alemão favela, a hotbed of drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro, Folha de São Paulo reported.
According to the newspaper O Globo, over 20 journalists covered diverse aspects of the operation, from police movements, to the reaction of residents and vivid photography of the favela's criminals. Using a camera mounted on a helicopter, the news program broadcast live images of fleeing drug traffickers.
Jornal Nacional was nominated for the Emmy seven times in the last nine years, the website G1 reported.
