Three journalists receive Democracy International’s Award

Democracy International has honoured three regional journalists for their exemplary gender-sensitive political reporting. 

The award recipients are H M Shahidul Islam, Special Correspondent of Daily Sylheter Somoy; Marina Lovely, Rangpur Bureau Chief of Channel I and Daily Protidiner Bangladesh; and Sakhawat Hossain, Chief Reporter of Daily Rajshahir Sangbad.

Last year, Democracy International started the training on 'Gender-Sensitive Political Reporting' attended by 24 journalists from various local and national news media houses. 

As a result of this training, 73 news articles by these journalists from 16 districts were published in their respective news outlets, spanning the period before and after the national election.

Among them, DI recognized three journalists for their outstanding news articles after a follow-up training session with the same group of participants, held at a hotel in Dhaka on Sunday. 

Dana L. Olds, Chief of Party at Democracy International, presented the crests and certificates to the winners and other participants. 

During her closing remark Dana said, “Journalists are vital to democracy and changing the narrative about women in politics”.
Under the USAID-funded Strengthening Political Landscape (SPL) project, Democracy International has previously recognized and awarded Dhaka-based journalists for their reporting on gender-sensitive political stories, which promoted inclusion and non-stereotypical representation of women in politics.

Democracy International’s Deputy Chief of Party Lesley Richard, Senior Director Lipika Biswas and Senior Program Specialist Rita Das were also present at the training's closing ceremony.

Democracy International’s officials applaud journalists for publishing gender sensitive political reporting and hope they will continue their efforts to promote democracy and inclusion in politics through responsible journalism in Bangladesh.