Catalog

Winners in Their Own Write
ADB Review [ August-October 2006 ]

Journalists from India, Thailand, Cambodia, and Fiji Islands take top prizes at 2006 Developing Asia Journalism Awards held for the first time in Manila

By Graham Dwyer
External Relations Specialist

MANILA, PHILIPPINES

Journalists from India, Thailand, Cambodia, and Fiji Islands received the top prizes at the 2006 Developing Asia Journalism Awards (DAJA) held in Manila in April.

The annual event recognizes excellence in journalistic reporting by those covering development trends and issues in the region.

PRIZE WRITERS DAJA 2006 winners (left to right) Samisoni Pareti, M. Suchitra, Rith Sam, and Supara Janchitfa with ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda (middle) at the ceremony (above); hosting the event was CNN’s Lorraine Hahn (right)

Started by the Tokyo—based Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in 2004, and held in Japan for its first 2 years, this year the event was cosponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

There was a record number of entries with more than 150 journalists submitting 250 articles, as well as a record number of female journalists and a high number of young journalists.

From these, 16 finalists from 11 developing member countries of Asia and the Pacific were selected by an independent panel of three judges and invited to a 2—day program in Manila, culminating in the awards ceremony, hosted by CNN anchor/ host Lorraine Hahn.

M. Suchitra, 43, Director of The Quest Features & Footage in Kerala, India, was named Development Journalist of the Year at the awards ceremony held at the Edsa Shangri—La Hotel. The first female overall DAJA winner, she received the award for her article in India Together on how inadequate maternity care is costing tribal women their lives.

The Bangkok Post's Supara Janchitfah, 44, was awarded Development Woman Journalist of the Year for her story on Muslim fishermen using knowledge and information to protect their seas from commercial trawlers.

The Fiji Islands' Samisoni Pareti, 38, won the Island Journalist Award for his piece in Islands Business News on the lucrative market for human labor exports, while 25—year—old Rith Sam of the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia was named Young Development Journalist of the Year for his story on "Widows still fighting the demons of war."

In addition to these special prizes, in which the winners received $2,000 each plus a trophy, other awards were also given for reporting in four strategic areas of development, with winners and runners—up each receiving cash prizes ranging from $500 to $1,500.

ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda, who personally presented the top prizes of the night, said ADB is proud to support the DAJA program.

WELCOME President Kuroda greets the DAJA 2006 finalists at ADB headquarters

"We deeply appreciate the contributions each of you makes to development by drawing the public eye to the many faces of poverty and deprivation, and to potential and lasting solutions," he said in his speech at the ceremony.

The panel of judges this year consisted of 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.

The program "recognizes journalistic excellence in a region where there are no Pulitzer prizes to honor such achievements, and where journalistic effort often goes unrecognized and unrewarded," Mr. Rowley said in delivering the judges' report.

"By offering these awards, ADBI and ADB have offered journalists in Asia not just financial support but also moral support in uncovering problems of poverty, corruption, and abuse, which authorities often would prefer to keep covered up."

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