A SOUTH African TV news programme produced by former Shuttle reporter Chris Bishop has won a prestigious international award.

SABC's flagship News at 8 beat the BBC's News at 6 and Germany's Hunte Journal to win the Media Tenor Award, which is given to programmes with balanced and objective journalism.

Wadim Schreiner, of Media Tenor, an international media content research institute, said the SABC award was of special importance since, despite the mixed society in South Africa, journalism was produced which surpassed that of established broadcasters in the United States and Europe.

Stourport-born Mr Bishop, whose parents live in Hartlebury, is a former New Zealand journalist of the year, and was head-hunted by SABC after quitting as head of news of Botswana TV.

He resigned on principle after government interference in newsgathering at the station which he had helped to launch 12 months earlier.

As senior executive producer of News at 8, he was brought in to bolster flagging ratings. He said: "This is an exciting country and these are exciting times. As it emerges from the ruins of apartheid, society is dynamic and changing fast and News at 8 has to move in step with everything in one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world.

"It's all thousands of miles from Worcestershire but I feel that the solid grounding I gained in journalism at home, mixed with the steel forged in Africa, has set me in good stead."

Mr Bishop, who has been in Africa since 1993, covered events in Angola, Mozambique and Zambia from a base in Harare.