Debate, even dissent, should lead to decisions in national interest: V-P at Ramnath Goenka Awards

With Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu present on the dais, the Vice President presented the awards for outstanding contributions in journalism for 2024 to 25 winners in 18 categories from print, digital and broadcast platforms, including investigative reporting, politics and government, feature writing, books (non-fiction), sports and regional language journalism.

In his speech, Radhakrishnan spoke of the legacy of Ramnath Goenka, recalling the publishing of a blank editorial in The Indian Express during the Emergency. “These awards, in their 20th year of inception, honour the legacy of Shri Ramnath Goenka ji, which was defined by courage,” he said.

Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s NDA government, Radhakrishnan said its biggest achievement has been bringing 25 crore people out of poverty, adding that development should be inclusive.

Citing the Prime Minister’s speech at the Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture last year, when he said there was a need to shed the colonial hangover, the Vice President said this was still a challenge.

Delhi L-G Taranjit Singh Sandhu at the event, Friday. (Renuka Puri)

Earlier, delivering the welcome address, Viveck Goenka, Chairman and Managing Director of The Indian Express Group, said: “The journalist of the next 20 years will need to be, simultaneously, more technically capable and more humanly irreplaceable than ever before. They have to meet readers wherever they are, in all formats, radio, video and text. Readers will not come to us simply because we have always been here. We must go to them, speak to them in their languages, on their platforms, in formats they have chosen.”

Goenka said the role of journalism was not to choose sides, but to illuminate. “To give citizens the information they need to understand their world and make their choices as free people. That has always been journalism’s calling. The winners we honour tonight have answered that calling. They vindicate my belief that good journalism is thriving in the present — and has a very bright future. Because whatever the technology or the disruption, the citizen’s need, our need, to know the truth will never go away. It will get stronger and more urgent,” he said.

In his address, Raj Kamal Jha, Chief Editor, The Indian Express, said: “Good journalism will remain, at its core, about telling stories we did not know, stories that someone in power does not want us to know. We are handed certificates. Certificates for journalism. Certificates for nationalism. One by the politician who plays editor. Another by the editor who plays politician. We don’t need these certificates. What we need is the respect of the reader — the reader who returns to us not because we told them what they want to hear but because we didn’t.”

Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, presented a memento to the Vice President — a portrait of Radhakrishnan made by Shyam Kumar Prasad, Chief Illustrator, The Financial Express.

Among those who attended the awards ceremony were Lok Sabha MPs Manish Tewari, Anil Baluni and Rajeev Kumar Rai; Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Shukla; BJP leader Rajendra Agarwal; CPI general secretary D Raja; lawyer-politician Ashwani Kumar; and, Mongolian Ambassador Ganbold Dambajav.

The jury for the 20th edition of the awards, instituted by the Ramnath Goenka Foundation, included Justice B N Srikrishna, former judge at the Supreme Court; Prof C Raj Kumar, founding Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal Global University; Prof K G Suresh, Director of India Habitat Centre, former Vice Chancellor, Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism & Communication and former Director General, Indian Institute of Mass Communication; Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Co Founder & Director, EkStep; and Dr S Y Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner.