An ombudsman who is affirming the right and duty of every citizen to initiate and secure redress and who has shown that a conscientious, resolute writer can strengthen public morality

A master of the raga who has revealed its beauty to those outside of India by creating new music for dance, radio and films, composing hundreds of songs in both the folk and classical traditions and bringing sitar music to the West

An author from Bangladesh who has advocated for books as the primary source of knowledge and pleasure

One of very few practitioners of the profession of competent agriculture reporting in developing Asia, where agriculture has been the principal livelihood and holds promise of being an increasingly lucrative mainstay

Sri Lanka's renowned premier playwright and a prolific literary critic who has set new standards for Sinhalese writing

A Malaysian editor who used his influence to support the "Fifties Generation" of Malay writers

As a free-lance journalist and rural affairs editor of The Hindu, Sainath has taken a different path. Believing that "journalism is for people, not for shareholders," he has doggedly covered the lives of those who have been left behind.

A priest who introduced Catholic programming to Philippine television and helped set up Radio Veritas

A journalist whose weekly Nepal Press Digest became an effective journal of contemporary reporting within the kingdom