The Bonik Barta deputy chief reporter Md Monjurul Islam has won the prestigious AmCham Frontline Journalism Award for his work during the Covid-19 pandemic. The award presentation ceremony was arranged virtually on 24 January (Sunday) evening considering the safety measures amidst the spread of ongoing pandemic. Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen was the chief guest of the program while Earl Robert Miller, ambassador of the US Embassy in Dhaka, attended as the guest of honour.
Along with Md Monjurul Islam, some 25 journalists from print and electronic media also won the awards, and were presented with crests, certificates, and cash prizes. Reporters from electronic, print and online media houses and news agencies (national) were asked to submit their pandemic related generic or business reports focused on two perspectives – the impact of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods and in the business sector, published between March 1 and August 31, 2020. The winners were selected from a significant number of submissions belonging to leading media houses of Bangladesh after a careful assessment and awarded in the program.
Monjurul won the award for his report “1 lakh new labor visas in the process of expiration”, published on The Bonik Barta on June 20 of last year. The award was organised by American Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bangladesh (AmCham), in collaboration with Masthead PR.
In the virtual award-giving ceremony Earl Robert Miller, the US ambassador to Bangladesh said, some 43 Bangladeshi journalists have died from Covid-19 so far. It took great courage and journalistic principles to put their lives under threat and go to report even during such a pandemic. Miller said, the journalists give voice to the voiceless.
Now Md Monjurul Islam is working at Daily Bonik Barta as Deputy Chief Reporter. He is working at Bonik Barta since 2011. As a reporter he has to work in various sectors. But his dedicated working areas are: aviation & tourism sector, manpower sector like expatriates a professionals working in different countries. Monjurul awarded two times for outstanding contributions to tourism sector’s development through objective reporting. For this he got two Tourism Fellowship from Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) under Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.
