The award supports Rukon’s investigation into non-economic climate losses along coastal communities, adding to a decade of recognised reporting on corruption, public health, environment and migration.
Chattogram journalist Shariful Rukon has won the Earth Journalism Network’s 2026 fellowship on “non-economic loss and damage caused by climate impacts on the Bay of Bengal coast”, earning recognition from the global media support network for the second time.
The fellowship will support an investigative report on losses that cannot be measured in money, from submerged graveyards to childhood memories washed away, the kind of invisible climate damage that uproots people from their communities.
For Rukon, the international grant and fellowship focused on the Bay of Bengal coast is not new, but it is significant. It marks his second recognition from the Earth Journalism Network, known as EJN. He previously received the Asia-Pacific Story Grant from the same organisation in 2022.
Before the EJN fellowship, Rukon received another recognition. In May 2026, he successfully completed a special “Story Grant and Mentorship” programme of the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Through the six-month mentorship, conducted under the guidance of international journalists, he completed an investigative project.
Rukon is currently chief reporter at Chattogram-based Ekushey Patrika.
Over the past decade, he has built a distinct profile in investigative journalism on corruption, public health and the environment. The latest addition to that record came on June 6, 2026, when he won the Bangladesh Agro-Industry Media Award for an investigative report on the prospects and challenges of the country’s agriculture and agro-processing sector.
His achievements include investigative journalism awards from Transparency International Bangladesh, or TIB, in 2023 and 2024, following a TIB investigative journalism fellowship in 2021.
He also received the BRAC Migration Media Award for three consecutive years, in 2022, 2023 and 2024, in recognition of his contribution to migration journalism.
In 2023, the Global Investigative Journalism Network selected Rukon’s three-part investigative report, “Patients sacrificed to the greed of healthcare providers”, as Bangladesh’s best investigative report of the year.
In 2024, he also worked on climate and agricultural technology through the COP29 Reporting Fellowship organised by the Center for Participatory Research and Development and The Climate Watch.
His other awards and nominations include the Plan International Media Award in 2025, the Bajus Media Award in 2023 and a nomination for the UNICEF Meena Media Award in 2021.
Rukon is also a former fellow of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, TIB and the Management and Resources Development Initiative. He has received international-standard training in data journalism, fact-checking, climate action and journalist safety.
Speaking about the new achievements, Rukon said, “These international recognitions and training opportunities have further enriched the quality of my work. My main goal is to bring the crises of marginalised people and state and institutional irregularities to the global stage.”
As the stories of the coast’s uncounted losses await a wider global audience, the recognitions mark milestones in that journey, where there is no time to stop, only preparation for the next report.
