The Dag Hammarskjold Scholarship Fund for Journalists is no longer accepting applications for 2008 and board members are sorting through the many exceptional entries from developing nations in Africa, Asia and South America and the Caribbean. The four winners will be notified before the end of June for coverage of the 63rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, which opens on September 16.
Our only regret is that we are limited to selecting only four entries; there are many more talented print and broadcasting journalists who are qualified for the fellowship. We received more than 80 applications from Africa, 50 applications from Asia, and 25 from South America and the Caribbean.
This is the 47th year the Dag Hammarskjold Scholarship Fund for Journalists has sponsored the fellowship program. Many past Fellows have risen to prominence in their professions and countries. In the last three years, journalists from Afghanistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, the Maldives, Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and Uruguay have participated in the program.
The Fund is run by correspondents accredited to the United Nations on a voluntary basis and financed by UN missions, foundations and corporations. Initiated in 1962, the Fund was established as a memory to Dag Hammarskjold, the second U.N. secretary-general, killed in a plane crash in September 1961 en route to negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo.
