5 win Asia’s ‘Nobel prize’

A campaigner who tackles youth suicide in South Korea, two journalists, and a human rights activist were named Friday among the winners of Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Kim Jong-ki, whose 16-year-old son took his life after being bullied in school, received the 2019 award for helping South Korea face one of the developed world’s highest suicide rates. Over 24 years, Kim’s Foundation for Preventing Youth Violence has carried out wide-ranging anti-bullying campaigns.

Journalists Ravish Kumar of India and Ko Swe Win o Myanmar were also winners of this year’s award, along with Thai human rights campaigner Angkhana Neelapaijit, and Filipino composer Raymundo Cayabyab.

Neelapaijit, 63, is the widow of a prominent human rights lawyer who was abducted and later murdered after publicly accusing the military of torturing detainees in the troubled Muslim region of southern Thailand. The former housewife took up her late husband’s cause and established the Justice for Peace Foundation to document the situation in the area, provide legal aid to victims, and put pressure on the government to act on human rights cases.

Ko Swe Win, 41, is the editor of the Myanmar Now, an independent online news service known for its well-researched, in-depth articles on the country’s under-reported human rights and social justice issues, the award foundation said.

India’s Ravish Kumar, 47, is the host of NDTV India’s “Prime Time” programme that sheds light on Indian society’s under-reported problems and who has endured harassment and threats for calling the country’s highest officials to account.

The annual award, widely considered Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, is named for the Filipino president who died in a 1957 plane crash. This year’s winners will receive a cash prize and a medallion at a Manila ceremony on September 9.