Catalog

Words of Honor
ADB Review [ August 2005 ]

ADBI’s 2005 awards honor excellence among developing Asia’s print journalists

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

Given the daily deluge of lurid TV images hitting our screens, you would be forgiven for thinking that news has lost much of its shock value.

Yet, the best print journalists can still bring home to us the depth of human suffering in the world and touch our hearts in a way that broadcast media cannot.

That was the verdict of eminent journalist Anthony Rowley in presenting the judgment of this year’s Developing Asia Journalism Awards (DAJA), sponsored by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).

PRIZE WRITERS The Developing Asia Journalism Awards special award winners with the panel of judges

The event, in its second year, recognizes excellence in journalistic reporting by those covering development trends and issues in the region.

Prizes for 2005 were awarded at the end of March in the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) for reporting in four strategic areas of development, with winners and runners up each receiving cash prizes ranging from $250 to $1,500. In addition, there were four special prizes of $2,000 each plus a trophy.

India’s P.K. Savad Rahman, a reporter at the country’s Madhyamam Daily, a Malayaalam language paper, was named Development Journalist of the Year at the awards ceremony.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s Xi Xiumei, a reporter at China Global Business and Finance, was awarded Development Woman Journalist of the Year for her article on the underground money market.

Fiji Islands’ Vasiti Valatia Ritova of Pacnews won the Island Journalist Award, while Sanjaya Dhakal of Nepal’s Spotlight magazine was named Young Development Journalist of the Year for an article on domestic violence against women.

Their winning articles were among the almost 140 entries from 58 journalists across ADB’s developing member countries. From these, 17 finalists from nine countries—including Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, and Viet Nam—were invited to a 2-day media and orientation program in Tokyo culminating in the awards ceremony at the FCCJ.

The winners were selected by a jury of four headed by presiding judge Mr. Rowley, Tokyo Correspondent of the Business Times of Singapore and Field Editor for Oxford Analytica. The other judges were Yoshio Murakami, Adviser on International Affairs to the Asahi Shimbun; Suvendrini Kakuchi, a Sri Lankan journalist reporting for Inter Press Service; and Monzurul Huq, Tokyo correspondent for two Bangladeshi papers, Daily Star and Prothom Alo.

Holding a Mirror to Life

“Good print journalism, in my view, holds up a mirror to life, which brings the image into much sharper focus than other media can,” Mr. Rowley said in his judge’s summary.

“We all become rather blasé about watching death and destruction on TV. Yet still print journalists—such as our DAJA entrants—can stir our feelings and produce shock or anger, or sadness that people should have to endure degradation and extreme poverty. Or they can make us feel joy at the triumph of the human spirit in coping with suffering and adversity.”

He added that it is the writer’s ability to “describe” human suffering that makes the news so real, rather than a string of images flashing across a television screen.

Besides being the overall winner, Mr. Rahman also won top prize in the Women and Development category for his article on the plight of prostitutes in the brothels of Mumbai. Mr. Dhakal was runner-up in that category. Muhammad Irfan Shahzad, of Pakistan, was awarded second runner-up.

Last year’s inaugural Development Journalist of the Year, Massoud Ansari, of Pakistan’s Newsbeat magazine, was one of five reporters who was a repeat finalist this year. He was placed first this year in the People and Development category, with the PRC’s Abigail Liu named runner-up, and Ma. Dios Labiste of the Philippines second runner-up.

There were honorable mentions for entries from two other returning finalists, Lalitha Sridhar of India, and Jofelle Tesorio of the Philippines, as well as newcomer Amer Farooq of Pakistan.

Ms. Xi topped the Development Agencies and Development category, with returning finalist Hoang Tu Giang of Viet Nam, named runner-up and Raymond Zhou of the PRC, second runner-up.

ADBI Dean Peter McCawley said the awards were part of his organization’s support for improved governance in Asia and the Pacific. “One of the key institutions of governance in the region which needs strengthening is the media,” he said.

“Through sponsoring the DAJA program, the ADB Institute aims to lend support to the efforts of journalists from developing countries who write highquality reports about key social and economic issues facing the region. It is our aim to recognize both the individuals themselves, the individual journalists, as well as the importance of the specific issues they choose to highlight.”

Mr. Rowley said the DAJA entrants have shone a light into dark places where grinding poverty and crippling disease still lurk in certain parts of Asia.

“They have shown us a side of life where exploitation, corruption, and crime still cripple the lives of so many of the region’s poor,” he said. “And they have once again reminded us that no matter how much the developing community is doing to reduce poverty and relieve suffering there is a very long road to travel in this direction.”

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