The official awarding ceremony of the Dimitar Peshev Awards for Excellence in Journalism on Ethnic and Faith Tolerance was held in the Military Club in Sofia for a fifth time. The ceremony took place on the International day for the victims of the Holocaust. The UNDP Resident Representative Henry R. Jackelen bestowed the Dimitar Peshev award for TV journalism to Raycho Chaprazov from Nova Tv.
Henry Jackelen highlighted the strong partnership of the co-rganziarosr of the national contest – The Interethnic Initiative for Human Rights Foundation, UNDOP, Bulgarian Telegraph Agency and the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications of Sofia University. UNDP awarded the Foundation with a special Certificate of Appreciation for its longstanding efforts to advance human rights and human development.
The jury members for the fifth edition of the contest were: Valery Lekov, Vessela Tabakova, Ivailo Ditchev, Krastio Krastev and Nery Terzieva. The awarding fund was provided by the United Nations Development Programme. The Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe supported the media monitoring component of the national contest and the Embassy of Canada contributed to the ceremony.
The winning journalists in the 2008 edition of the Dimitar Peshev National Contest are:
- Elizabeth Radkova and Petar Petrov for the article “To build a church in Istanbul” of 27 December 2008, The 24 Hours Daily.
- Raiko Baitchev receives the encouraging award for his article “The Bulgarian Mohammedan’s rebellion is only in politician’s heads” of 29 October 2008 published in The Klassa Daily;
- Raitcho Chaprazov is awarded for his TV broadcast entitled “From the other side” aired on 8 November 2008 in the Temata na Nova show, Nova TV.
