VOA’s Doug Bernard Named Radio Presenter of the Year

Washington D.C., November 30, 2006 – Voice of America broadcaster Doug Bernard was named “International Presenter of the Year – Radio” by the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) for his work as host of VOA’s Talk to America program during the second annual global AIB Awards event in London on November 22, 2006. The London- based AIB is the industry association for the international broadcasting community.

Bernard was one of 22 winners selected from more than 100 entries by a panel of broadcasting industry peers and critics for excellence in international radio, television and Internet.

“Doug Bernard … [showed] intelligent presentation and questioning, very polished, with a smile in his voice,” said Barbara Serra, AIB Awards host and London anchor for the newly launched Al Jazeera English news network.

Bernard is currently the anchor of VOA’s weekly TV magazine program to India, The World Today, which is co-produced with Headlines Today, a 24/7 nationwide English news channel in India. In 2000, Bernard was named a distinguished journalism fellow at the University of Michigan where he lectured and conducted research. He has also written for The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor. He previously worked for C-SPAN as an assignment editor and producer, as well as an on-air host, interviewer, and managing editor for the Michigan Public Radio Network overseeing all state and national productions.

Talk to America, VOA’s daily, 60-minute, English-language call-in program broadcast live on radio and the Internet, engages a worldwide audience in a daily dialogue with a variety of decision makers, personalities and experts on far ranging subjects.

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 more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 115 million people. Programs are produced in 44 languages.

For more information, contact the Office of Public Affairs at (202) 203-4959, or by e-mail at [email protected].