'Launch social movement against acid violence'

Winners of ASF Media Award 2006 pose for photograph with the guests, including Women and Children Affairs Adviser Geetiara Safiya Chowdhury, at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the city yesterday. PHOTO: STAR

Only enacting laws is not enough to check the menace, they said and called for a social movement against acid violence.

Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) organised the ceremony to give away the ASF Media Award 2006 to journalists at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the city.

Women and Children Affairs Adviser Geetiara Safiya Chowdhury, eminent artist Qayyum Chowdhury, Manusher Jonno Foundation Executive Director Shaheen Anam, ASF Executive Director Monira Rahman and Managing Director of Square Toiletries Ltd Anjan Chowdhury attended the ceremony.

Four journalists won the ASF Media Award in four categories for their contribution to raising awareness about acid violence.

They are Naznin Akhter of Janakantha (best report), Fedous Faisal of Prothom Alo (best feature), Kishower Laila of Bangla Vision (best report in the electronic media) and Syed Zakir Hossain of The Daily Star (best photograph).

Each winner received a crest, a certificate and a cheque for Tk 30,000.

The ASF also awarded the Prothom Alo a special award for its contribution to the mobilisation of public opinion against acid violence and to the rehabilitation of acid survivors.

A panel of judges headed by Prof Shaikh Abdus Salam, chair of the Department of Mass Communi-cation and Journalism, Dhaka University, selected the winners.

Addressing the ceremony, Geetiara said parents should make their children aware of the brutality of acid throwing so that they could understand that it is an inhuman act as they grow up.

She also urged the media to take up special programmes to raise awareness about acid violence.

Shaheen Anam said the people who throw acid should be isolated.

Acid survivors do not need anyone's pity; they only want friendship, she added.