Dharamshala: Tseten Dolkar of the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia (RFA) was honoured with the 2009 David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award for her outstanding reporting during 10 months of 2008 covering the peaceful Tibetan protests.
Dolkar, a member of Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan service, received the award at a ceremony held by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in the Cohen Building in Washington on Wednesday, 3 June.
Named after former BBG Chairman David Burke, the award recognizes courage, integrity and originality in reporting by journalists within the BBG broadcast organizations.
“She helped cover the earliest stories of Tibetan unrest due to the Tibetan peoples’ trust in her objectivity, as she employed multiple sources, including the Chinese police, and triple-checked her stories before broadcasting,” said BBG Governor Blanquita Cullum.
“We are proud of Tseten Dolkar, who is deserving of this wonderful honor and high praise, as is the staff of Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan service, for their tireless work in breaking this story,” RFA’s website quoted Libby Liu, President of Radio Free Asia as saying.
“We thank the Broadcasting Board of Governors for recognizing the solid journalism that went into covering the Chinese crackdown on Tibetan protesters in March last year and will continue to inform RFA’s listeners of the news happening around them,” Libby Liu added.
Another winners of this year’s award are: Luis Ramirez of Voice of America (VOA), the Afghanistan-based correspondents of RFE/RL’s Afghan Service, the radio news department of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), and Serwa Abdel Wahed and Akram Alrubaiei of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks’ Alhurra TV.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency which supervises all U.S. government-supported, civilian international broadcasting, including the Voice of America (VOA); Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL); the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa); Radio Free Asia (RFA); and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Marti). Through its broadcast services, the BBG provides the United States and its leaders direct and immediate access to a worldwide audience of 155 million people.