Four Hello child journalists win Meena Media Awards 2019

Four child journalists of bdnews24.com’s Hello have won the Meena Media Awards 2019 along with 41 others.

The awards in 13 categories for print, electronic, online and visual media reports were handed in a cultural function at a Dhaka hotel on Sunday.

Hello’s Shela Akhter Mou came second and Pritha Pronodona third in creative reporting in print and electronic media.

Shela won the award for her writing under the title “Think about human, not religion” and published on hello.bdnews24.com.

Pritha’s award-fetching story was headlined, “May gender inequality vanish”.

Hello’s Dean Mohammad Sabbir won the second place in reporting in print and electronic media.

In visual reporting category, Hello’s Nibir Saha won the third place for his story on lack of readers at public libraries in Sirajganj.

Shela, who is studying journalism now, said she wished to build a career in the profession and work extensively.

“Love for Hello! It’s my second family!” she said.

Pritha said the award was a “big achievement and will be a source of inspiration”.

Nibir said he was “elated” while Sabbir’s joy was “bigger” as it was his first award.

UNICEF goodwill ambassadors magician Jewel Aich, actor Arifa Zaman Moushumi and cricketer Shakib Al Hasan, UNICEF Bangladesh Child Rights Advocate musical band group Warfaze representative Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu, and UNICEF Bangladesh Representative Tomoo Hozumi handed the awards to the winners.

“Media plays a very critical role in development of any society. It highlights progresses, but at the same time, points out remaining as well as newly emerging challenges,” Hozumi said.

He termed the media “eyes and ears of society”, and added: “I hope the media professionals present here today and beyond will continue to play a pivotal role in regular, factful and analytical reporting of issues concerning children to galvanise the society towards actions to address them.”

A 12-member expert panel of judges from creative writers, media professionals both from print and broadcast media, photographers and academics picked up the winners.

Starting the journey in 2013, Hello (http://hello.bdnews24.com/) is run with the contents produced by children and adolescent journalists aged 10-17 years.

The first-ever specialised Bangla news website for children is the result of a joint initiative between bdnews24.com and UNICEF.