Community radio related two initiatives of the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) have been recognised as Champions in UN World Summit on the Information Society (UN WSIS) Prizes 2019.

The chairperson of the board of trustees of the BNNRC and the executive director of COAST Trust, Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, received the UN WSIS champion certificate

from Houlin Zhao, secretary-general of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), at a ceremony at the Geneva International Conference Centre, Switzerland, as part of the annual UN WSIS Forum 2019, on Tuesday

The ITU announced 90 Champions of the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes contest, and 18 Winners out of these 90.

The Champions projects are: Climate justice and resilience through Community Radio in coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, Supported by the COAST Trust, Bangladesh, and Creating Awareness on Right to Information (RTI) through Community Radio, Supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF).

WSIS Prizes is a unique international contest developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognise individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private sector companies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.

WSIS Prizes has been recognising remarkable efforts made by entities and organisations from around the globe.