Washington, D.C., April 21, 2009 - Navbahor Imamova, an Uzbek broadcaster with the Voice of America (www.VOANews.com) has received the "Young Alumnus Award" from Ball State University's Department of Journalism in Muncie, Ind.
Each year, Ball State's Department of Journalism (www.bsu.edu/journalism) honors several alumni who have excelled in their field. Imamova was awarded the 2009 Young Alumnus Award earlier this month. The recipient must be "under thirty-five years of age and must be a graduate of the journalism program. He or she must be in journalism or a related area and must have specific distinguished professional qualities."
As a senior editor and anchor at VOA's Uzbek Service, Imamova played a pivotal role in the launch of Exploring America, a 30-minute weekly television feature magazine, primarily highlighting U.S. culture, society and politics as well as U.S.-Uzbek contacts in these fields. Imamova began working for VOA in 2001 while still a graduate student at Ball State.
Born on a farm outside Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Imamova started her journalism career at Uzbek state radio hosting youth programs. She later became a political reporter. She then attended the Maharaja's College at the University of Mysore in India, where she earned a B.A. in journalism and mass communications.
Imamova came to Ball State, where she received her M.A., as an Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellow.
VOA Uzbek broadcasts daily 30-minute radio shows and the weekly 30-minute TV news magazine.
The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 134 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.
For more information, call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.
