Manila Today
Manila Today news editor Roy Barbosa is a bronze finalist for the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize for coverage of the United Nations (UN) and UN agencies in the 27th annual United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) awards.
Barbosa is the only Filipino who has won the award.
The Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize is named in honor of Elizabeth Neuffer, The Boston Globe bureau chief at the UN who died while on an assignment in Baghdad in 2003. The said award is sponsored by the Alexander Bodini Foundation.
The top winner this year is Colum Lynch, senior reporter for Devex (United States), who reported on Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea shortly after its troops invaded Ukraine which alarmed the UN and governments of the impacts on food prices.
Other awards went to Marco Congiu of Sky TG24 (Italy), Alannah Travers of The New Humanitarian (United Kingdom), NHK Special – The UN Production Team (Japan), Shalini Singh, People’s Archive of Rural India (India), Nadima Umar Uthman, GHOne TV (Ghana), Valerie Volcovici from Reuters (United States) and Juan Carlos Machorro, Periodismo y Ambiente (Mexico).
Barbosa was a campus journalist and became a coordinator for the College Editors Guild of the Philippines National Capital Region (CEGP-NCR) before becoming news editor for Manila Today.
As a community journalist, Barbosa has integrated into far-flung and marginalized communities to bring to light the socioeconomic issues and conditions emphasizing its impact on livelihood, land/housing tenure, and education among other fundamental rights.
The UNCA awards honor journalists from around the world for the best print, broadcast (TV & Radio) and online, web-based media coverage of the United Nations, UN agencies and field operations.
The awards will be assigned on December 15 during the annual UNCA gala attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The event will also be attended by UN ambassadors, high-level UN officials, Hollywood celebrities, humanitarians, corporate and cultural organizations, and media from around the globe.
UNCA is a professional organization of over 200 correspondents and producers from dozens of countries, representing scores of publications, news agencies, and broadcasters from all regions of the world, founded in 1948.
The relationship between the UNCA, as the organization representing the UN press corps, and the Secretary-General is based on an agreement in 1955 and is recognized annually by the United Nations General Assembly, most recently, in 2018. It represents the UN press corps at the United Nations on issues related to coverage of the news and access to news sources.
