Budhathoki wins ADB award
The Kathmandu Post Report
KATHMANDU, Apr 8 - Gajendra Budhathoki, a senior economic journalist won a top award of Developing Asia Journalism Awards (DAJA) in Tokyo Wednesday. Asian Development Bank Institute was the organizer of the DAJA. A press release of Asian Development Bank states that Budhathoki, associated with Nepal Samacharpatra, a vernacular Nepali daily, was conferred with the first prize in the category— Role of Private Sector in Development.
Eighty-nine entrants from developing countries of ADB had submitted more than 250 stories for the awards. Of them, 20 finalists were invited to the ceremony in Tokyo and a jury selected the winners, the release states.
The overall winners also won first prize in three of six special categories. The overall winners were awarded US $2,000 each, while category winners and runners-up received US $1,500, US $1,000 and US $500, respectively.
The awards were organized to publicly recognize the efforts made by Asian and Pacific print journalists from developing countries who provided high-quality coverage of issues affecting growth and development, says the releasing quoting Peter AcCawley, Dean of the ADBI.
Nepali scribe bags Asian award
Himalayan News Service
Kathmandu, April 9,2004 A Nepali journalist received the first Developing Asia Journalism Awards in Tokyo amidst a programme organised by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) on Wednesday. Gajendra Budhathoki of the Nepal Samacharpatra daily won first prize for his report the "Role of private sector in development category", an ADB statement said on Thursday. More than 250 stories were submitted for the award. The three overall winners were awarded $2,000 each, while category winners and runners-up received $1,500, $1,000 and $500 respectively.
News Published in The himalayan Times, 9 April 2004
Top Prize for Reporter from Nepal in ADBI’s Developing Asia Journalism Awards
ADB News Release
Kathmandu(8 April 2004) – A Nepalese journalist took a top award last night in the first Developing Asia Journalism Awards in Tokyo organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).
Gajendra Budhathoki, of Nepal Samacharpatra Daily, won first prize in the Role of the private sector in development category in a ceremony held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
The overall top prizes of the evening were won by Massoud Ansari, an investigative reporter from Pakistan’s Newsline magazine, who was named Development Journalist of the Year. Ma Guihua of China Features was awarded the Woman Development Journalist of the Year, while Tran Thi Le Thuy, a reporter with Vietnam Economic Times, was named Young Development Journalist of the Year.
More than 250 stories were submitted for the awards by 89 entrants from across ADB’s developing member countries. From these, 20 finalists, who were invited to the ceremony in Tokyo, and the eventual winners were selected by a jury of three that included presiding judge Anthony Rowley, Tokyo Correspondent of the Business Times of Singapore and Field Editor for Oxford Analytica; Yoshio Murakami, Adviser on International Affairs to the Asahi Shimbun; and Suvendrini Kakuchi, a Sri Lankan journalist reporting for Inter Press Service.
“We three judges … were each very impressed by the overall high standard of entries for this, the first of the ADBI Developing Asia Journalism Awards,” said Mr. Rowley, at the ceremony, held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
The overall winners also won first prize in three of six special categories.
The full category winners
are as follows:
Pro-poor sustainable economic growth
Winner: Ma Guihua of the PRC, 1 st runner-up Afshan Subohi Hyder of Pakistan, and 2nd runner-up Hu Yifan of the PRC. Honorable mentions went to Irina Boyko of Uzbekistan and Abdullah Jameel Ahmed of Maldives.
Inclusive social development
Winner: Lalitha Sridhar of India, 1st runner-up Zofeen Ebrahim of Pakistan, 2nd runner-up Miriam Grace Go of the Philippines.
Good governance and anti-corruption
Winner: Massoud Ansari of Pakistan, 1st runner-up Supara Janchitfah of Thailand, 2nd runner up Aries Rufo of the Philippines.
Role of the private sector in development
Winner: Gajendra Budhathoki of Nepal
, 1st runner-up Jofelle Tesorio of the Philippines, 2nd runner-up Hoang Tu Giang of Viet Nam.
Regional cooperation and integration for development
Winner Tran Thi Le Thuy of Viet Nam, 1st runner-up Lin Gu of the PRC, 2nd runner-up, Afshan Subohi Hyder of Pakistan.
Environmental sustainability
Winner Wang Ya of the PRC, 1st runner-up Anne Poorna Swarnamalie Rodrigo of Sri Lanka, 2nd runner-up Yasmin Arquiza of the Philippines. Honorable mention went to Loh Foon Fong of Malaysia.
“The awards were organized to publicly recognize the efforts made by Asian and Pacific print journalists from developing countries who provide high-quality coverage of issues affecting growth and development,” said Peter McCawley, Dean of ADBI.
The awards are, “we hope, a modest step in the direction of strengthening the voice of the Asia-Pacific region on the international stage,” he added.
He said that journalism contributes to good governance by playing a watchdog role on political and official leaders and by “encouraging informed debate about national policies and helping create constituencies for reform.”
The three overall winners were awarded $2,000 each, while category winners and runners-up received $1,500, $1,000, and $500, respectively. Nineteen of 20 finalists in the competition, from 11 developing countries, attended the ceremony in Tokyo and took part in a two-day program that included visits to media organizations based in the city, NHK, Reuters and the Mainichi Shimbun.
“I think this competition has reminded us that good journalism can make people aware of the human dimensions of development in a way that official reports can never hope to do,” Mr. Rowley said.
“Development issues are often cloaked in official jargon, so that they become unrecognizable as issues involving people. But good journalism can restore the human dimension and make us see these problems not in terms of cold statistics but of people and their sufferings.”
NEPALESE JOURNALIST AWARDED IN JAPAN (news by nepaljapan.com)
News Published in the NEPAL SAMACHARPATRA DAILY