There were scenes of undisguised relief last night at the International Media Excellence Awards held in London when France 24, the state-funded news channel beat rivals ranging from BBC World Service to al-Jazeera to be named top international news service of the year. The relief was down to the fact that last January incoming French president Nicholas Sarkozy seemed to place a big question mark against the Paris-based service's future. France 24 chief operating officer Jean-Yves Bonsergent told Monkey it had become accepted that the most efficient way to run the channels was with French and English language versions, rather than having English subtitles on one French service. France 24's Bangkok-based correspondent, Cyril Payen, also won an award for his exclusive reports on the military crackdown in Burma, which were shown around the world. Ross Kemp was named international TV personality of the year, for his Sky1 documentary series, Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, although illness kept him away from the dinner. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Steve Coogan.
· This article was amended on Monday November 17 2008. Cyril Payen (not Hambani Makwerekwere as we said in the article above) is France 24's Bangkok correspondent. This has been corrected.
