Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Radio Sawa were honored for their news coverage at the 2012 New York Festivals Radio Program & Promotion Awards®.
Radio Sawa’s reports covering the Egyptian Revolution won the Gold Radio Award under the category of the Best Coverage of an Ongoing News Story and the Bronze Radio Award under the category of Special Report. From the heart of Tahrir Square, Radio Sawa told of the thousands of people who took to the streets to call for change and the physical toll of these days on the protesters taken to the hospital for care.
Radio Sawa’s report from Misratah won the Silver Radio Award in the category of the Best Coverage of an Ongoing News Story. The report covered the violence in Misratah, the city which was the battleground for clashes between rebel forces and pro-Gaddafi troops. The report highlighted the courage and resilience of the city’s inhabitants who continued their fight for democracy in the face of death and destruction.
RFA Uyghur’s Shohret Hoshur’s gold-medal-winning entry, titled “Hear the Children Cry Freedom,” chronicles an incident in which four Uyghur youths, the youngest being 7 years old, were jailed following a deadly clash with Chinese police on Dec. 28, 2011. The youths were branded by the authorities as traitors for trying to seek political asylum outside China. The piece won in the category of best coverage of a breaking news story.
RFA Korean service broadcaster Jung Min Noh was named as a finalist in the contest’s category of social issues/current events programming for his series on a bicycle rally and human rights campaign in Europe to bring attention to China’s forced repatriation of North Korean refugees.
RFA Korean’s Won Hee Lee was named as a finalist in the category of best human interest story for her piece on a Korean-American living in the United States engaged in a project attempting to reunite families separated after the Korean War through personalized video greeting letters.
RFA Korean’s Jinseo Lee was named as a finalist in the category of educational programming for his series on a group of North and South Korean college students meeting in Germany to discuss the possibility of a unified Korea.