TWO RTE programmes have been short-listed for a European Union award for television and radio reporting of humanitarian crises.
The award scheme is part of an attempt by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) to highlight the EU's role in providing aid to victims of humanitarian crises. The EU is the largest humanitarian aid donor in the world, and last year spent £553.6 million in more than 60 countries.
The RTE programmes on the short list are the monthly television series, Divided World, edited by Ms Betty Purcell and presented by Mr Myles Dungan, and a programme from the Worlds Apart radio series produced by Mr Rodney Rice and Ms Roisin Boyd.
The short list for the awards was announced yesterday by the BBC foreign correspondent, Mr Martin Bell, at the opening of an ECHO exhibition at the European Public Information Centre in Dublin's Molesworth Street.
The shortlisted entries will be broadcast as part of the exhibition which depicts the work being done by ECHO and the agencies with which it works. The announcement of the winning productions will be made at a ceremony in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin, in early December.