Kathmandu, April 18

Journalist Dilip Paudel of Nagarik daily has been named the recipient of the Barbara Adams Investigative Journalism Award 2017.

A meeting of the Judge Committee, Barbara Adams Investigative Journalism Award, held on Monday picked Paudel as the winner. The award carries a prize money of Rs 100,001. The award will be handed over to Paudel by former president Ram BaranYadav on Democracy Day and birthday of late Barbara Adams on April 24, 2018, stated a press release issued by the foundation.

A total of 45 applications were received by March 31, after Barbara Foundation called for submissions of investigative reports published, aired or broadcast in 2017.

The Judge Committee sat through three rounds of selection process to pick Paudel’s report on a series of corruptions and irregularities by the leadership of Nepal Oil Corporation as the winning report. The issues raised by the reports, the depth of their investigations, and the scale and reach of the impact they made in 2017 were the core criteria used by the selection committee to pick the winner.

Beginning this year, Barbara Foundation has also decided to pick as ‘Honourable Mention’ one of the top five applicants selected by the Judge Committee. Kalpana Bhattarai has been selected as the winner for 2017 for her investigative report on gangsters’ engagement in crusher industries.

This award carries a purse of Rs 10,001.  The top five reports from among the 10 short-listed reports are Paudel’s report; series of reports on NCELL tax scam by Krishna Acharya of Kantipur daily; report on irregularities and misuse in the purchase of vehicles by officials of the constitutional bodies by Rameshwor Bohara of Himal Khabarpatrika; report on copyright violations and plagiarism in the medical sector in Nepal by Nagarik daily’s Bishnu Prasad Aryal; and Kalpana Bhattarai’s report.

Barbara Adams was a journalist and writer. She instituted the Barbara Adams Investigative Journalism Award on May 16, 2013 with the endowment fund of ten lakh rupees with the goal of promoting investigative journalism, and through it, good governance and democratic norms and values in Nepali society. Born in New York City in 1931, Barbara Adams came to Nepal in 1961, and lived here until her death on April 22, 2016, two days short of her 85th birthday.