The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) will honor Arun Kristian Das, a 2001 graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, among the winners of this year's SAJA Journalism Awards at SAJA's seventh annual awards dinner to be held on Saturday, June 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the Roone Arledge Auditorium at Columbia. Das, who is also a 1995 graduate of Columbia College, will be recognized for his documentary, "Two Deaths Too Many," on police shooting deaths in New York City.

The SAJA awards recognize excellence in reporting about South Asia, as well as outstanding reporting by South Asian journalists and students in the U.S. and Canada. The awards ceremony is part of the SAJA national convention, which takes place June 22 to 24 and is expected to draw 500 journalists and guests from the U.S., Canada, Europe and South Asia.

The awards will be presented by Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, who will be delivering the keynote address. In addition, Zakaria will receive the SAJA Journalism Leader Award, SAJA's highest honor, in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the field of journalism and international affairs.

"The awards are important since they recognize outstanding media coverage of a vital but under-covered region--the Indian subcontinent--and also honor creative work by journalists covering South Asians in North America, as well as outstanding reporting by South Asians," said Nina Mehta, chair of the SAJA awards committee and a managing editor at Derivatives Strategy magazine.

This year's contest received more than 200 entries from 100 media outlets for work executed in 2000. The entries reflected the higher visibility of South Asians in the United States and the increased attention paid to the Subcontinent. Sreenath Sreenivasan, administrator of the awards and a professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, added, "The wide range of media outlets that sent in entries shows the strong interest in upholding standards in foreign coverage and in reporting by minority journalists."

The SAJA awards are judged by a team of senior journalists drawn from newsrooms around New York City and faculty of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

For details, including ticket information, call 212-854-5979.

For a list of this year's winners, click here.