On Tuesday, September 24, in Rome "Forbidden Methods" received the highest rating at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Creativity Forum.
Last year, during the run-up to the Saeima elections, the broadcast team created a new challenge for political party leaders - "Breakout Game Latvia". The originality of the format was acclaimed by other public service media professionals across Europe.
The project was designed as a challenge for party leaders who had to prove that they were capable of teamwork to solve challenging tasks, testing not only their decision-making abilities but iving genuine insight into the content of their characters and their ability to improvise away from well-prepared media opportunities.
18 different television formats competed at the forum for the Best Original Format, and the "Forbidden Methods" show was recognized as the best and most creative project.
Guntis Bojārs, an experienced journalist who fronts the show, registered his delight.
“We got a lot of compliments...Of course, immediate questions arose about how we got all the politicians together in a room,” Bojārs said.
Norway's public broadcaster took second place and the UK's BBC was in third, despite the fact that Latvian public media is among the continent's most poorly-funded.
The EBU Creative Forum is the annual event for screening programme formats with only public service content from Europe and beyond. Every format shown has been broadcast in the country of origin.
The forum offers EBU Members and organizations from other public service broadcasting unions worldwide the opportunity to exchange TV formats, share production and studio facilities, and pool their creative potential.
If you'd like to watch the shows that won the award, you can do so below in two parts.
