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ADB Review [ November 2004 ]

Asia’s homegrown talent takes a well-earned bow at the Asian Development Bank Institute’s first Developing Asia Journalism Awards

By Graham Dwyer (gdwyer@adb.org)
External Relations Specialist

Background

Tokyo, Japan

In Asia, it tends to be the foreign correspondents that command the glamour, respect, plaudits, and high fees, while their local counterparts battle at the sharp end of systems that often lack freedom of expression and of the press. Fighting lack of respect, corruption, official censorship, low pay, and even physical threats, the lot of Asia’s homegrown journalists is, therefore, not always an easy one.

So when the Tokyo-based Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) was planning a groundbreaking regional journalist award scheme, it decided to focus purely on these largely unsung local heroes—print reporters that produce hard-hitting, accurate, and objective reporting on development in difficult circumstances.

“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.”

FINALISTS (from left, standing) Aries Rufo, Supara Janchitfah, Lin Gu, Ma Guihua, Hoang Tu Giang, Abdullah Jameel Ahmed, Greg Mettam of the Mainichi, Jofelle Tesorio, Peter McCawley (Dean of ADBI), Massoud Ansari, Dan Sloan of Reuters and FCCJ President, Gajendra Budhathoki, Grant Stillman of ADBI, Presiding Judge Anthony Rowley, Judge Yoshio Murakami of Asahi Shimbun; (from left, seated) Miriam Grace Go, Yasmin Arquiza, Lalitha Sridhar, Wang Ya, Zofeen Ebrahim, Afshan Subohi Hyder, Loh Foon Fong, Tran Thi Le Thuy, Irina Boyko, Anne Poorna Swarnamalie Rodrigo. Not present was Hu Yifan of the PRC.

He was speaking at the first awards ceremony for his organization’s Developing Asia Journalism Awards, held at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo on 7 April.

Journalists from Pakistan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and Viet Nam took top honors on the night.

Massoud Ansari, an investigative reporter from Pakistan’s Newsline magazine, was awarded Development Journalist of the Year, while Ma Guihua of China Features was named Woman Development Journalist of the Year. Tran Thi Le Thuy, a reporter with Vietnam Economic Times, won in the Young Development Journalist of the Year category. The three main winners also took top awards in three of six special categories (see box for full list of winners).

More than 250 stories were submitted for the awards by entrants from across the developing member countries (DMCs) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), ADBI’s parent organization.

From these, 20 finalists, who were invited to the ceremony in Tokyo, and the eventual winners were selected by a jury that comprised 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.

“Many of the articles submitted provided very good reading. There were inspiring accounts of people—ordinary, and often poor, people—fighting courageously against the problems of poverty and deprivation.”

The three overall winners were awarded $2,000 each. Category winners and runners-up received $1,500, $1,000, and $500, respectively. Nineteen of 20 finalists in the competition, from 11 DMCs, attended the ceremony. They also took part in a 2-day program that included visits to media organizations based in the city, including NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Reuters, and the Mainichi Shimbun.

Dan Sloan of Reuters’ Tokyo office, FCCJ President, said hosting the event was a great honor for the club. “We respect the initiative, the enthusiasm, and literally the spark of all the journalists who took part,” he said. “And essentially our press club shares a lot of the same ideals. And if we can do anything to foster and facilitate recognition of people who are doing good work, we want to do so.”

Mr. McCawley commented 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.”

“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 added.

“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.”

It is planned that the awards will continue annually. Application forms are available from ADBI and online at http://www.adbi.org/journalism.awards/

Top

A Trio With Courage and Conviction The Development Journalist of the Year, Massoud Ansari, 33, has worked as a reporter for 14 years. He has traveled throughout Pakistan and remote areas of Afghanistan and Kashmir, braving frequent death threats to write stories exposing corruption, religious fundamentalism, and trafficking. His entries included “courage under fire” about the perils faced by nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and aid agencies in Afghanistan, and an article exposing corruption in the public education system in Pakistan. “When you bring out all these stories and get all the appreciation, you feel vindicated that all that effort was not wasted,” he said after his awards. “I am really excited. The award would obviously give me a lot of encouragement.” Ma Guihua, 38, who was awarded for two articles—on microfinance for rural women and the poor rural schools of the People’s Republic of China—has worked for China Features for 13 years. She specializes in development-related issues. Praised by her editor as a “meticulous researcher,” her stories range from education, poverty, and health to environmental protection. She said that in her work she tries to give a voice to people not represented by the mainstream media. “There are actually a lot more people out there in China who are doing these stories on a daily basis who just do not know about the journalism awards. I think maybe the awards will encourage them,” she said. Tran Thi Le Thuy, 28, who wrote about “making aid more effective,” worked through the ranks from intern to key reporter on the Vietnam Economic Times. Her editor, Chu Van Lam, says she is a “tenacious and concerned reporter” who has a rare blend of top writing and interpersonal skills. “My aim is to raise the voice of the poor and the disadvantaged,” she said. “I try to write stories that provide perspective for policymakers to make better choices for our country.” AWARDEES The overall winner Massoud Ansari; woman winner, Ma Guihua; and young winner, Tran Thi Le Thuy receiving awards from Reuters’ Dan Sloan

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