New Delhi, July 24: It is a matter of pride for all North-easterners that David Buhril, a young man from Churachandpur district of Manipur working as Sub-Editor in the North East Sun, a weekly magazine published from Delhi received an honour of awarding the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards 2006-07, the country's most prestigious journalism award recently.

David Buhril received the award carrying the prize of Rs 50,000 from the President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam at the solemn awards ceremony held at Taj Palace Hotel here on July 16 last.

He won the award in Regional (North East) category in print media.

This year was the second edition of the awards instituted by the Indian Express Group.

Kishalay Bhattacharjee of NDTV won this year's Regional (North East) award in Broadcast media.

In the last year, Ratna Bharati Talukdar, a freelance journalist won the Regional (North East) award in print media for her in-depth reports chronicling the lives and struggles of coal-mine workers in Upper Assam.

The broadcast award last year for North East category went to Sutapa Dev of NDTV for a report that ventured into the heart of unrest in Manipur and told the story of its victims.

The Indian Express, in its issue dated July 22 narrated stories of this year's award winners numbering 24 who received the awards in its respective categories.

About David Buhril, it quotes, "The man from Churachandpur, Manipur looks at a story in two different ways: how will his readers outside the North east relate to it? And how will those at the helm of affairs in the region respond to it? Buhril went into the hills of Manipur last year, to Tipaimukh, where activists of militant groups had unleashed a brutal campaign against ethnic groups.

"We visited one village where a group of women who were raped had taken shelter and they had been given no medical facilities".

Buhril arranged for their transport to the nearest town.

Spending a week in the village, he saw the land-mines the militants had strewn the hills with.

He saw first �hand the plight of refugees who had fled to neighbouring Mizoram.

"One of the aims of my stories was to get the message across to those who ought to be responsible," David says.

About Kishalay Bhattacharjee, it writes, "Kishalay Bhattacharjee came to the North east seven years ago, planning to stay for a year.

He stayed on, 'the region is a great place to work; it has conflict, wildlife, rock music, diverse elements.

The downside is stories from the NE do not generate much sponsorship'.

In the recent past, Bhattacharjee has begun concentrating on the big picture.

He says he has been lucky that the stories to whose roots he reached became bigger issues, such as narco-terrorism.

For the future, though, the journalist who pays equal attention to technical details sees 'no possibility of the region' figuring prominently in TV news.

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