MUMBAI: Documentary series National Geographic Explorer will receive a coveted duPont-Columbia University Award for excellence in television journalism. The ceremony will be held on 13 January at Columbia University. The event will be telecast on 23 November on MSNBC.

The documentary is a two-hour eyewitness report on civil war in Liberia and the overthrow of president Charles Taylor. In covering a violent, breaking news story in Liberia, National Geographic's team showed both courage and insight. Just when most news organizations started pulling out of Monrovia, correspondent Michael Davie and a film crew led by Scott Bronstein traveled to Liberia to investigate firsthand a civil war at its most intense, informs an official release.

The Explorer series will begin airing on the National Geographic Channel in January 2005. Earlier this year the program was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for best television documentary on international affairs by the Overseas Press Club of America.National Geographic Explorer has earned more than 400 awards, including 52 Emmy Awards and 13 CableACE awards, as well as being nominated for two Academy Awards.

Additionally, Explorer received eight News & Documentary Emmy Award nominations announced today by NATAS - more than any other program on broadcast television or basic cable. The series premiered in 1985 on Nickelodeon, and moved to TBS in February the following year. In September 1999, the series moved to CNBC and relocated to sister-network MSNBC in October 2001. The series re-launched as "Ultimate Explorer" in June 2003 on MSNBC, adds the release.