Previous Award Winners

2011 CSC Award Ceremony

On Wednesday October 19, 90 people including representatives from the African community in Brisbane applauded the efforts of the 2011 Communication for Social Change Award winners Freddy Mata Matundu and Dipak Naker from Raising Voices.  Deputy...

On Wednesday October 19, 90 people including representatives from the African community in Brisbane applauded the efforts of the 2011 Communication for Social Change Award winners Freddy Mata Matundu and Dipak Naker from Raising Voices.  Deputy Vice Chancellor, Michael Keniger, presented the Award to the two winners.
 

2010 World Comics India, Winner of the Organisational Category

Accepted by founder and director Sharad Sharma, the Award is made in recognition of the pioneering work undertaken by World Comics in using the medium of grassroots comics to create awareness, education and social change in India and elsewhere

World Comics India (WCI) is an NGO founded in 2002 by New Delhi-based political cartoonist Sharad Sharma. WCI s a collective of grassroots activists, cartoonists, artists, development journalists and students who develop and promote the use of comics and cartooning as “grassroots” communication for social change tools that empower disadvantaged communities by giving them a “voice”.

WCI promotes the use of “grassroots comics” both in India and worldwide. It defines “grassroots comics” as a visual medium that tells local stories. As a communication tool that transcends the barriers of language, literacy, media access and social class and caste, grassroots comics have been successful in promoting positive social change outcomes in India’s remote and conflict-ridden regions, and also across South Asia.
 
WCI works with local NGOs and civil society activists to conduct skills development workshops, often in remote rural areas that have poor access to mainstream communications infrastructure. WCI training teaches the fundamentals of comics and cartooning design and production; workshop participants decide what stories they want to tell. Wall posters are the main product of WCI’s training workshops.
Its activities include:
  • “Grassroots comics” campaigns. WCI has launched four campaigns: Girl Child Right, Child Right and Paedophilia, Corporal Punishment, and Children’s Participation in Local Governance.
  • Training of Trainers program. WCI produces training manuals for the delivery of “grassroots comics” workshops internationally, publishes comic anthologies, and conducts issues-based awareness campaigns.
  • World Comics Network. WCI promotes the use of grassroots comics as a tool to promote positive social change globally. It has created small independent comics divisions in Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, has a presence in Europe (in the UK, Sweden and Estonia) and has also recently introduced the concept in West Africa and Latin America.
  • Training workshops. WCI has conducted more than 500 workshops globally and has trained more than 10,000 people in disadvantaged communities to express themselves using the simple “grassroots comics” format.
  • International partnerships. WCI works in collaboration with international development organizations in Europe, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. WCI’s partners include Oxfam-GB, UNICEF, Plan, World Vision, Community Pride Initiative (UK), Viracao (Brazil), Jansansadya (Sri Lanka), Save The Children Sweden, Insan Foundation (Pakistan), Plan (Benin), Swedish Comics Society (Sweden) and World Comics Finland (Finland).

For more information go to the World Comics India website

2010 Mr Santoso, radio KBR68H, Winner Individual Category

The Award is made in recognition of the extraordinary moral courage shown by Tosca Santoso in using the media, print and radio, as the means to strengthen democracy in Indonesia and bring about social change.

Mr Tosca Santoso is the Managing Director and founder of leading Indonesian radio network KBR68H. A journalist of 20 years’ standing in Indonesia, Mr Santoso is also an internationally respected media freedom and human rights advocate who played a leading role in Indonesia’s struggle for media freedom during the 1990s. He coordinated the production of a popular underground political publication, Independen (Independent), which won the 1995 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award.

Prior to launching KBR68H, in 1998-99 Mr Santoso was Executive Director of media freedom NGO The Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (Institut Studi Arus Informasi).
 
Mr Santoso is recognised as a leading social entrepreneur in Indonesia. In addition to his role with KBR68H, he is the Managing Director of Green Radio, a Jakarta-based radio station which specialises in environmental radio journalism, and which also conducts a number of pioneering off-air environmental activities such as a reafforestation program and an ecotourism program.
 
Mr Santoso is concurrently the Managing Director of TEMPO TV, which is a collaboration between KBR68H and Indonesian print media group TEMPO.
 
Throughout his career, he has played a leading role in a number of respected Indonesian media organisations. Mr Santoso was the first Secretary General of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (Aliansi Jurnalis Independen/AJI), which he helped to found in 1994 in protest at government censorship. He was a member of the Indonesia Press Council from 2003-2006, and in 2006 he helped found the Indonesian Association for Media Development (Perhimpunan Pengembangan Media Nusantara).
He has received a number of awards for his contribution to media freedom and journalism in Indonesia. In 2006, he became an Ashoka Fellow, and in 2005 won an Asia Foundation Press Award; and in 1995 he received the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Rob Bakker Award.
 
Mr Santoso is a widely-published author and contributor to publications on media freedom in Indonesia. He wrote KBR68H, Gelombang Kebebasan (published in 2006; the English-language edition was entitled Waves of Freedom), and was editor of the book Seni Wawancara Radio (Interviewing for Radio, published in 2000). In the later years of authoritarian rule in Indonesia, he coordinated a team that published “unlicensed” books in defiance of the Government’s censors.

For more information KBR68H website (in Bahasa)

 

2009 New Dawn Community Radio 95.3 FM, Award Winner

The Award is made in recognition of New Dawn FM 95.3 Community Radio’s brave and pioneering work is in the best tradition of international grass-roots activism to promote communication for social change.

New Dawn FM 95.3 Community Radio is a locally owned and managed radio station that offers the people of Bougainville an independent source of news, information, education and entertainment.
The radio station, which describes its mission as “Strengthening Bougainville autonomy through radio broadcasting to provide information & community development”, is based in the town of Buka, and was founded in 2008 to help rebuild Bougainville’s civil society in the wake of a devastating 10-year internal conflict which killed 20,000 people, and displaced 40,000 others.

It offers its local audience an independent local and provincial news service, as well as a range of programs covering current affairs, government service announcements, education and entertainment.
New Dawn FM also provides local villagers with the latest information about local development initiatives in agriculture, health, social welfare, HIV/AIDS prevention, and gender issues. It supports a range of community projects to promote literacy and assist jobless youth, and encourages the preservation of Bougainville’s cultural heritage through music, story-telling and oral history programs.
 
The radio station’s founders include the radio station’s current Chairman (Mr Carolus Ketsimur) and its Manager (Mr Aloysius Laukai). The two men are amongst a local group of broadcasters and journalists who spent years in hiding in the mountains of Bougainville during the civil war to escape threats to their lives.
 
For more information visit New Dawn's website

2009 Mrs Lakshmi Murthy, Vikalpdesign Meritorious Commendation

Mrs Lakshmi was recognised for her innovative use as an artist and graphic designer to promote communication for social change amongst India’s most disadvantaged.

For over 20 years, Rajasthan-based graphic designer and artist Lakshmi Murthy has innovatively used her skills as an artist and graphic designer to promote communication for social change amongst India’s most disadvantaged.

Ms Murthy, who manages the Vikalpdesign studio in Udaipur, Rajasthan, Northern India, specialises in designing illustrations for information and training materials used in a diverse range of communication and social change projects.  
Her work on a range of social communication and public education projects is targeted at illiterate rural and urban communities throughout the country.
 
Ms Murthy has collaborated with a range of NGOs and development communication experts on projects in areas such as gender, life skills education, natural resource management, agricultural development and environmental conservation.
Educational material produced by Vikalp Design has been distributed across India through the networks of UNFPA (The United Nations Population Fund), CHARCHA (the Association of Indian Progressive Study Groups/AIPSG’s discussion and news blog), the State Resource Centre, Jaipur, and a number of NGOs.
 
Mr Murthy’s Vikalpdesign studio also offers training for craft and graphic design students on subjects such as the role of design in the development sector, and supports an internship program.
 
Ms Murthy is Country Director (India) for the International Rural Network (Canada), and is a Visiting Lecturer at the National Institute of Design; the Indian Institute of Craft and Design, Jaipur; the Pearl Academy of Design, Delhi; the Centre of Environmental Education; the Nehru Foundation, Ahmedabad, and the University of Udaipur.
 
For more information visit Vikalpdesign website

 

2008 Mr Chin Saik Yoon, Southbound Press, Award Winner

Mr Chin himself is recognised as a long-standing and consistent activist in communication and social change issues, especially in the fields of publishing, advocacy and non-government organisation development.

Southbound Press is an independent scholarly publishing house based in Penang, Malaysia. Founded by Chin Saik Yoon in 1990, Southbound was one of the first publishers in the world to specialise in development communication topics. Chin Saik Yoon works across the Asia Pacific region at community, national and regional levels in a wide variety of roles as a publisher, technical consultant, project designer and evaluator, analyst, researcher and advocate in development communications. As well as his involvement with Southbound Press, Mr Chin is currently Principal Technical Consultant to an ASEAN Foundation project (designing a regional communications and information initiative to monitor animal-borne diseases such as Avian Flu), and is a Board Member of UNESCO-ORBICOM (the International Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communications.)

The award’s independent jury an selected Mr Chin and Southbound from 16 nominations received from organisations and individuals in Pakistan, USA, Nigeria, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Iran.
Announcing the Award, the Head of School, Professor Michael Bromley, said that Mr Chin is internationally known for his long-term commitment to communication for social change, especially as a regional pioneer in the use of information and communication technologies to empower the poor and disadvantaged.
 
"Mr Chin's publishing house, Southbound Press, is based in Penang, but its reach extends around the world," Professor Bromley said.
 
Its collections of publications and papers research and analyse themes such as development communication, information and communications technology (ICT) and the Internet, media, and research and development. Southbound Press titles come from the Asia Pacific, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the USA and Latin America. They are often published in collaboration with other organisations to encourage greater involvement by authors, civil society organisations, researchers and international development agencies.

For more information visit the Southbound Press website

2008 John Dada/Fantsuam Foundation, Meritorious Commendation

Made in recognition of the clearly-demonstrated commitment to communication and social change and their role in promoting ICT development in remote rural communities. The award jury is especially cognisant of the volunteer work in furthering the cause of development in Africa.

John Dada founded the Fantsuam Foundation, a Nigerian rural women's NGO, in 1996. Currently the Fantsuam Foundation's Program Director, he is also its longest-serving volunteer. Through his work with the Foundation, Mr Dada aims to build the knowledge economy in rural Nigeria through the use of radio, community theatre and multimedia, in order to give farming communities better access to health and education information.

Mr Dada is a Master of Public Health (Nuffield Institute, and University of Leeds, UK), and has a PhD in Crop Protection (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria). John Dada is also a Visiting Scholar to Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and the ECWA School of Health Technology, Kagoro, Nigeria.
 
He is also a founding member of the Peoples' Open Access Education Initiative, which aims to offer low-cost, high-quality online education and training courses to disadvantaged communities in low and middle income countries.
 
The Fantsuam Foundation delivers ITC community development programs to around 300,000 people in Northern Nigeria – predominantly women farmers and their families in remote regional and rural communities. The Foundation's projects include Nigeria's first Community Wireless Network, and a Knowledge Resource Centre commissioned in collaboration with IDRC-Canada. The Foundation also runs a wide range of formal and informal education programs such as teacher training, a Computer Club for vulnerable children, economic management and microfinance training and informal training on nutrition, hygiene, community health, reproductive and other health-related issues (through the Positive Concern HIV/AIDS support group).

For more information visit  Fantsuam Foundation website

For videos about Fantsuam Foundation's work watch on youtube

2007 The Soul City Institute, Award Winner

Soul City is awarded for making a real and positive difference to the lives of some of South Africa’s most disadvantaged people, mainly in city slums and regional and rural towns, by harnessing the power of the mass media to produce relevant, informative and entertaining programs.

The Soul City Institute is a South African community organisation that fights key health issues such as HIV and AIDS through the innovative use of the mass media. The Institute was recognised by judges from the UQ School of Journalism and Communication for its role as a pioneer in producing television programs that combined education with entertainment to promote social change in South Africa.

Mr John Molefe, Senior Executive Marketing and Public Affairs collected the Communication and Social Change Award at a special ceremony on Thursday 11 October at the SMI Conference Room, Sir James Foots Building, University of Queensland. Mr Molefe’s acceptance speech explored the complex interplay between the individual, society and politics in health communication strategies directed towards the making of attitudinal and behavioural change, and the critical role played by advocacy in South Africa.
Through drama and entertainment programs Soul City reaches more than 16 million South Africans. This is done through 2 main brands: Soul City which targets adults, Soul Buddyz (8 - 12 year olds); and Regional Programme which is a partnership with local organisations in 8 Southern African countries. Programs have also been broadcast in many parts of Africa as well as Latin America, the Caribbean and South East Asia.
 
Soul City examines many health and development issues, imparting information and impacting on social norms, attitudes and practice. Its impact is aimed at the level of the individual, the community and the socio-political environment. Through its multi-media and advocacy strategies aims to create an enabling environment empowering audiences to make healthy choices, both as individuals and as communities.

 
Head of the School of Journalism and Communication, Professor Michael Bromley, said the award recognises Soul City’s outstanding long-standing achievement in using communication strategies and operations to advance social well-being. “While many health projects focus on influencing the individual alone, Soul City views good health as a product not simply of individual choices, but as the product of an enabling environment in which the structural barriers to achieving health and development are removed.”
The Institute views health and development as integrally related: poor health impedes development and development is central to improving global health.

For more information visit Soul City Institute's website

2006 Supinya Klangnarong CPMR Campaign, Award Winner

The award recognises the moral courage and on-going commitment demonstrated by Supinya Klangnarong and the ‘Campaign for Popular Media Reform’ in the furtherance of freedom of expression, media pluralism and communication for social change in Thailand.

A 33 year old Thai woman battling Thailand’s national government and powerful corporate sector over human rights and journalistic freedom was awarded the inaugural Communication and Social Change Award 2006.

General Secretary of the Thai media advocacy group, ‘Campaign for Popular Media Reform’ (CPMR), Ms Supinya Klangnarong received the award from the University of Queensland at a ceremony in Brisbane on 22 September 2006. The Award was presented to help mark the 85th anniversary of the founding of journalism studies at the University’s School of Journalism and Communication, the longest established journalism program in Australia and one of the oldest in the world.

In recent months, Supinya fought and won a defamation case brought by Thai telecommunications giant, Shin Corp, seeking US$10-million. Freedom of expression advocates around the world have acclaimed the ruling as an important victory for the right to freedom of expression globally.

Shin Corp was founded by Thailand's Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra and owned by his family. In early 2006, the family sold its 49% share in Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.The defamation suit followed comments made by Supinya and published in the Thai Post newspaper that Shin Corp profits had soared since the election of the Prime Minister and questioned the relationship between Thai politics and commercial interests.

Supinya Klangnarong expressed both joy and frustration during her acceptance speech. While in the plane on her way to Brisbane, Thai military had once again staged a military coup which nullified the 1997 Constitution and dissolved the democratic process. She was clearly disappointed with the coup. She said that while Thaksin heavily controlled freedom of expression, military rule could also lead to a show of force, especially with the abolishment of the Constitution. She cited how articles 39, 40, 41 of the 1997 Constitution had at least guaranteed media freedoms, even if nothing much had changed in those 9 years that the Constitution was in effect. “Now we have to start all over again”.
The ‘Campaign for Popular Media Reform’ believes the broadcast frequency spectrum belongs to the Thai people and should be regulated and distributed responsibly to benefit the public interest.

Watch a video about the campaign link

On this site

Go to top