Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communications (BNNRC) has won a category prize from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) this year.
The NGO received the prize in the ‘mass media category’, one of the 18 categories for WSIS Prize, and it was handed over to BNNRC’s chief executive officer AHM Bazlur Rahman in Geneva on May 3, Information Ministry sources said here yesterday. “We appreciate and welcome BNNRC for bringing this prize to Bangladesh,” Information Secretary Mortuza Ahmad told Bazlur Rhman when he called on him at his information ministry office here. He said the credit for the award should go to 60 women journalists who have been working for the 16 community radios across the country. The Information Secretary said this was a great recognition to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who has pioneered community radio in Bangladesh. He said the award came for a successful project carried out by BNNRC in rural areas between 2013 and 2015.
The project identified talented rural women and trained them for print and broadcast journalism to get employed in local press and community radio programmes.
The rural journalists produced 500 feature stories and 800 radio programmes on health, child marriage, violence against women and social injustices during the period.
