Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, a celebrated Bangladeshi journalist, has made it to the jury panel that will pick the winner of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize from 2011 to 2013. In selecting Bulbul for the jury, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova mentioned Bulbul’s “profound attachment to the principle of press freedom and the considerable contribution he already made to this ideal.”

A board member of the International Press Institute, Bulbul also acts as consultant to and on-the-ground coordinator of IPI’s Bangladesh Free Media Centre in Dhaka.

Created in 1997, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize is widely recognised as the most prestigious award for journalists. The prize is awarded annually to a person, organization or institution that has made an important contribution to the defense and/or promotion of press freedom, anywhere in the world, especially if it involved taking risks.

Bulbul, editor-in-chief and chief executive officer of Boishakhi Television, previously served at the country’s oldest newspaper the Daily Sangbad, Daily Jugantor as well as Ekushey Television, the first terrestrial private TV channel and ATN Bangla.

Not only does he sit on IPI’s board, but he is also a member of the board of directors of the Open University of Bangladesh, director of the Press Institute of Bangladesh and a member of Dhaka University Senate.

Bulbul is the first Bangladeshi journalist to sit on the jury panel for the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.