2009 CBA Broadcasting Awards
BBC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, All India Radio, and New Delhi Television (India) are the main winners of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association's Broadcasting Awards for 2009. The awards were presented in Nuku’alofa, Tonga on Wednesday 11 February. Another small ceremony was held at BAFTA, London on 11 March. The prestigious Elizabeth R Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Service Broadcasting was awarded to Javad Mottaghi, Director, Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development.
The CBA-Rolls-Royce Award for Exceptional News Feature has been awarded to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the CBC News television programme The National – Moshe and Munir which tells the moving story of an unlikely friendship between two men, one Palestinian, the other Israeli. The judges were drawn into the story which shed light on how it is possible to overcome centuries-old ingrained prejudice.
New Delhi Television (NDTV) (India) is the winner of the CBA-World Bank Award for Programmes on Development Issues with a television programme Witness: Hungry Tribal Women, which touches on issues that affect all societies: what happens to vulnerable older women in rural situations. The programme has had an impact on local policy and attitudes.
The CBA-UNESCO Award for Science Reporting and Programming has been won by All India Radio for the radio programme Favour Begets Fortune. The judging panel was extremely impressed by the inventiveness and creativity employed in this programme which made full use of the intimacy of radio as a medium.
The CBA-Amnesty International Award for Human Rights Programme has been awarded to BBC World Service for the radio feature Taxi to the Dark Side - a fascinating, moving and detailed look at American abuses of prisoners in the so called 'war on terror'. An effective radio adaptation from acclaimed American documentary maker Alex Gibney, the original film won an Oscar for best documentary 2008.
The CBA-IBC Award for Innovative Engineering has been won by Nathaniel Clarke of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for Nat’s Box Of Tricks (NBOT). The NBOT was conceived, designed and developed to provide an ingenious and cost effective solution to the problem of testing radio contribution circuits in various parts of the vast landmass of Western Australia.
Owen Bennett-Jones of BBC World Service won the CBA-Thomson Foundation Journalist of the Year Award for his exceptionally well informed coverage of the Benazir Bhutto assassination and its aftermath, and his coverage of the feelings of the Arab world about the Six Days War, 40 years on.
Ian Kalushner, CBC, recieves the CBA-Rolls-Royce Award for Exceptional News Feature from Murray Green, ABC
Miloni Bhatt, NDTV, receives the CBA-World Bank Award for a Programme on Development Issues from Mano Wickramanayake, CBA Vice President
Sudhakara Reddy, All India Radio, recieves the CBA-UNESCO Award for Science Reporting and Programming from Abel Caine, UNESCO
Jeremy Skeet and Anna Horsbrugh-Porter, BBC World Service, receive the CBA-Amnesty International Award for Human Rights from Marcia Poole, Amnesty International
Murray Green, ABC, on behalf of Nathaniel Clarke, accepts the CBA-IBC Award for Innovative Engineering from Neil Dormand, CBA Technical Consultant
Owen Bennett-Jones, BBC World Service, receives the CBA-Thomson Foundation Journalist of the Year Award from Janet Boston, Thomson Foundation