The first award ceremony commemorating late Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai, who was shot dead while videotaping antigovernment demonstrations in Myanmar in September 2007, was held Saturday in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The first award went to Eint Khaing Oo, a 24-year-old female journalist from Myanmar, for reporting on the woes of the victims left by a devastating cyclone that ravaged the area in June last year, while risking repression by Myanmar's junta, which restricts press freedoms.

The journalist is serving a two-year prison term after being detained for allegedly causing public confusion by interviewing the disaster victims. A friend of the reporter attended the ceremony and accepted the award on her behalf.

The memorial award was set up after the Burma Media Association made a proposal to Nagai's parents and APF News Inc. in Tokyo, the company that hired him.