Tibetan Broadcaster Wins David Burke Distinguished Journalism AwardSaturday, 6 June 2009, 2:36 p.m.

RFA’s Tibetan broadcaster Tseten Dolkar receives the 2009 David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award at a ceremony in Washington, US, on 3 June 2009/Photo: RFA

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.