The US-based Nepali journalists' association, NEAJA, institutes a rural journalism excellence award for Nepal.
The Nepal America Journalists' Association (NEAJA), based in the USA, has instituted a journalism award to recognize outstanding professional performance of a journalist or a non-profit media organization working in rural Nepal.
The NRS 111111.10 prize, which will be given every two years, is a collaborative effort on the part of NEAJA and its vice-president Shekhar Dhungel in memory of his late parents Badri and Kul Kumari Dhungel. The prize has been thus named NEAJA Badri-Kul Memorial Excellence Award (NMEA).
The Nepal America Journalists' Association (NEAJA), based in the USA, has instituted a journalism award to recognize outstanding professional performance of a journalist or a non-profit media organization working in rural Nepal.
The NRS 111111.10 prize, which will be given every two years, is a collaborative effort on the part of NEAJA and its vice-president Shekhar Dhungel in memory of his late parents Badri and Kul Kumari Dhungel. The prize has been thus named NEAJA Badri-Kul Memorial Excellence Award (NMEA).
Mr. Shekhar Dhungel has pledged to deposit US $10,000.00 in the NMEA fund, created under NEAJA. He will continue to contribute more to ensure that the NEAJA Excellence Award will be presented regularly to an outstanding candidate from Nepal during NEAJA General Conventions, held every two years. The administrative and other costs would be borne by NEAJA.
The award will go to a journalist or a non-profit journalism institute working in the rural areas and helping promote rural lives by reporting on education, health, environment, agriculture and other imperative social issues. The first NMEA will be announced three months prior to the Third NEAJA General Convention which will be held on the first weekend of May 2012.
In a press release issued today, Krishna Sharma, the acting president of NEAJA said: "This small effort on our part, we hope, will serve to promote excellence and commitment in rural media practices in Nepal. We also feel that the establishment of the award will help further the friendly relations between Nepali journalists working in Nepal and their one-time colleagues who now happen to live or work in North America."
NEAJA has prepared a broad eligibility outline for the award. The award candidate should be working in rural Nepal for causes relevant to the lives of the ordinary people there. Journalists working in rural areas but are affiliated to national media outlets are also eligible. However, in case of journalism institutions, their location would not matter. They should nonetheless be non-profit with projects running in rural areas. Candidates should not be politically partisan or political party activists.
The decision to institute the award directly benefiting rural Nepali journalism was reached after NEAJA's leadership undertook consultations with Nepal-based professionals working in the area of media development. Despite the dramatic growth of the media industry in the past decade, opportunities remain confined to the urban areas, and rural media workers and institutions continue to be handicapped by the lack of resources and professional support or recognition of their works.
NEAJA advisor and former NTV veteran journalist Mr. Pratap Adhikary will oversee the NMEA Committee. He will work closely with Nepal's veteran journalists and media organizations like Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and other non-profit media groups in setting up an independent media monitoring committee. We are delighted to have community media pioneer, a Magsaysay awardee and chair of Media Foundation Nepal, Bharat Dutta Koriala, to oversee the selection process via an independent monitoring committee in Nepal. The NMEA committee will set up further criterion and execute the principal criteria set forth by NEAJA. After reviewing the articles or other news materials printed, aired or transmitted via various news media, the NMEA Committee shall recommend the names of the candidate to the NEAJA executive committee by the end of every two calendar years.
According to the news release, the Committee shall recommend the names of the NEAJA Excellence Award by the end of 2011 for the Award to be given on the first weekend of May 2012 during the third NEAJA convention. To be eligible for the NEAJA Excellence Award-2012, the winning candidate shall be working in rural Nepal 2010 through 2011.
The prize winning journalist or institution will be invited to receive the award during the NEAJA conventions held on the first weekend of May every two years. In case the winning candidate fails to show up during the convention alternative arrangements will be made to hand them over to the recipient.
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