The Thomson Reuters Foundation has won the 2013 Asian Environmental Journalism Award (AEJA) for "excellence in environmental reporting by a media organisation"
The Foundation has won the 2013 Asian Environmental Journalism Awards (AEJA) for Excellence in Environmental Reporting by a Media Organisation and Environmental Story of the Year. Awarded by the Singapore Environment Council (SEC), the AEJA gives recognition of commitment to serious and consistent coverage of environmental issues across Asia.
The Foundation submitted 13 articles, including:
- Thai villagers to fight Lao Mekong dam in court by Bangkok-based correspondent Thin Lei Win
- Thirsty South Asia's river rifts threaten "water wars" by Mumbai-based correspondent Nita Bhalla
The Foundation was also recognised for its ongoing public engagement on climate change issues through online events and social media. In the last year, the Foundation has held a number of online discussions with high-level participants, including Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and President of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, and Amina Mohamed, Special Advisor of the U.N. Secretary-General on post-2015 development planning.
“The Foundation continues to make climate change stories accessible to a much larger audience by bringing the human perspective into life,” said Monique Villa, Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO.
“This award is testimony to both the Foundation’s hard-working staff writers and our more than 30 freelance journalists in the region who each day take readers into communities on the front lines of climate change and environmental issues in Asia,” added Laurie Goering, the editor of AlertNet Climate, the Thomson Reuters Foundation's daily news website on the human impacts of climate change. “We believe we are making a difference, by driving good policy and by building the capacity of freelance journalists in Asia to cover climate change more accurately and effectively.”
The 2013 Asian Environmental Journalism Awards were open to journalists from 48 countries including China, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia and India. The judging panel included a distinguished group of leaders and experts from the Singapore government, private and NGO sectors. Among the criteria adopted for the selection of the winner, the jury looked in particular at "fair and balanced perspective" in reporting, and the "potential of an article to mobilise real, meaningful improvements in the environmental arena."
Last year the winner of the AEJA award in this same category was Agence France-Presse.
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