This year, he is the only Asian reporter to be awarded this coveted prize. Since its inception, Anas has been the second South Asian newsman to win the gold, after Somini Sengupta, a Kolkata (West Bengal)-origin climate reporter for the New York Times.
Past recipients include reporters for such global media organizes as New Yorker, New York Times, CNN, PBS Hour, Al Jazeera, Thomson Reuters, Guardian, and NHK, said a press release on Monday.
The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) will award the winners of its 2019 awards for best print, broadcast and online media coverage of the United Nations, U.N. agencies and field operations on December 6 in New York, the association announced on its website.
A total of 10 journalists have been awarded this year in three categories representing media organisations, including Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, and PBS Hour.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres will be the guest of honour while United Nations Population Fund Goodwill Ambassador Ashley Judd will be present as the UNCA Global Advocate of the Year at the 24th awards ceremony, a black-tie event to be attended by 600 guests, including leaders of the corporate, government, media, entertainment and non-profits.
Anas wrote “an eye-opening series of articles on the grave environmental challenges in his native Bangladesh for The New Humanitarian,” which sits on a massive river delta and is especially vulnerable to climate change, according to the jury board.
His articles “document alarming erosion and landslides contributing to economic dislocation and uncontrolled migration,” the panel of juries said.
“Abu has demonstrated again and again in his work for INS his ability and determination to dig deeper for important facts and analysis. He has applied these skills to this environmental reporting and has been rightly awarded this prize,” said Keith Nuthall, editor of the International News Services, where Anas is the Bangladesh correspondent.
“We’re delighted that he has been honoured in this way,” the INS editor said.
Anas said, “It sounded believable when I got the news in one morning in Manila, where I was covering an Asian Development Bank conference.”
This recognition will act “as a launching pad to pursue more ambitious stories,” he said.