Reinstituted Annual Journalism awards to be held on His Majesty’s birthday

Bhutan’s Annual Journalism awards are making a comeback after a gap of nearly five years with the Journalists Association of Bhutan (JAB) conducting it this time.

The award is to be held on 21st February 2015 coinciding with His Majesty the King’s birthday.

The award first started in 2009 and continued on till 2010 after which it was discontinued as no organization, governmental or non-governmental, took the initiative. The awards in 2009 and 2010 were both organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

There are five categories of award and these are best investigative story of the year, best business story of the year, best feature story of the year, best environment story of the year and best photojournalism award of the year.

The award shall be given to only journalists (reporters, editors, producers and    broadcasters) working in the Bhutanese media and it encompasses both print and broadcast media in the country.

There are also various criteria for the award. Journalists nominated for the awards shall be registered members of JAB. An individual journalist shall be nominated for not more than one award. Stories nominated for the award should be certified by the parent news organization and have created wide impact.

The award will be in the form of a trophy, a citation, and cash and winners are expected to receive attractive cash prizes.

The Journalists Association of Bhutan will form a committee to administer the award and the committee will receive, review, and verify the entries, forward the entries to the jury, compile ratings and declare the shortlist in the JAB’s website and Facebook and declare the results during the award ceremony.

The jury shall consist of three eminent persons who have proven integrity and impeccable media or media-related background. A list of potential jury members will be submitted by the JAB to the Board who will finalize the list.

According to the terms of reference the jury must understand that the award is a symbol of recognition for excellence in journalism and the jury will select the winners in different categories based absolutely on merit.

If nominations in a certain category are not worthy of the award, the jury shall withhold the award in that category for the year.

The Award Administration shall be responsible for the organizational logistics on the award day. The venue shall be decided by the Award Administration and announced through the media.