DUSHANBE, December 1, Asia-Plus — A ceremony of handover of awards to winners of a contest among electronic media of Tajikistan on the best coverage of drug demand reduction problems was held at the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex in Dushanbe on November 30.
The contest, formally entitled “World without Narcotics” was organized by Tajik public association Internews Tajikistan as part of the USAID-funded Drug Demand Reduction Program (DDRP). TV and radio stations participated in this contest that was aimed at raising healthy lifestyle awareness among the country’s population.
The contest participants presented some 30 journalistic works to compete in the following nominations: TV program; TV reporting and radio public service announcement (PSA). These products were broadcast on radio and television from January 1 to August 1, 2006.
U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Tracey Ann Jacobson, USAID Country Representative for Tajikistan Carolyn Bryan, as well as representatives from Tajikistan’s Government and international organizations active in the country attended the ceremony, handing over awards to winners..
Jacobson telling the ceremony congratulated journalists on participation in the contest and pointed out the significance of media in coverage of the drug addiction problems.
TV channel Safina was recognized the best in the TV Program nomination, and TV station Jahonoro was ranked the second in this nomination. TV station Sughd stood top in the TV Reporting nomination, TVT Channel One was ranked the second and TV and radio company Asia (Sughd) was ranked the third in this nomination.
In the Radio PSA nomination, the first award was handed over to the radio station Tiroz (Khujand) and the radio station Asia-Plus was ranked the second.
A special award was handed over to authors of the documentary “Qimmati Umr” (The Worth of Life).
The Internews Tajjikistan program director Romish Sherali said that the products presented in the contest also covered such problems as migration and spread of HIV-infection in Tajik society. According to him, the main objective of the contest “World without Narcotics” was to raise professionalism of journalists in informing the public against drug addiction and propagating healthy lifestyle.
