Media stands for rights,not to entertain: Ansari
Hamid Ansari was speaking at RNG Awards that honoured 36 of India's bright journalists.
Speaking at the fifth Ramnath Goenka Awards for Excellence in Journalism today evening at the Taj Palace Hotel in the Capital,Vice-President Hamid Ansari urged the media to “shape perceptions and also the national agenda”.
“In a changed and changing world,vibrant journalism is watchdog journalism… not sunshine journalism. It stands for rights and freedom and not to entertain and titillate. This should be the rule,and not the exception that it has become,” said Ansari,the chief guest at the function.
Seeking a strong and independent media,he regretted that “there has been a slow erosion of such editors”.
Because of “structural biases”,Ansari said,the media tends to celebrate the metropolitan,the upper and middle classes,those who speak English and those who work in the services sector.
Welcoming Ansari and the award winners,The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta said the winning stories were a testament to the fact that in newsrooms across the country,journalists were striving for excellence,at a time “when it is getting difficult to sift news from noise”.
The awards,which were presented to 32 awardees in 17 categories,recognised outstanding work in journalism both in the print and electronic media in 2009. Udayan Mukherjee from CNBC-TV 18 won the Journalist of the Year (Broadcast) 2009 for his coverage of the financial crises while J Gopikrishnan from The Pioneer won the Journalist of the Year (Print) award for his investigative series on the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
The stories that won the accolade ranged from those dealing with Naxalism to economic slowdown,from dying rivers to devastating floods,and with contemporary India and its myriad challenges.
The awards were instituted by the Express Group in 2006 to acknowledge and celebrate stories that needed to be told while adhering to the highest standards of ethics.
And The Award goes to
Prakash Kardalay Memorial Award for Civic Journalism to Tripti Lahiri,Tehelka.
Uncovering India Invisible award (print) to Maitreyee Handique,Mint
Uncovering India Invisible award (broadcast) to Shikha Trivedi,NDTV.
Reporting in Hindi award (print) goes to Anshuman Tiwari,Dainik Jagran.
Reporting in Hindi award (broadcast) to Hridayesh Joshi,NDTV India.
Film and Television Journalism (print) to Shubhra Gupta,The Indian Express and Sonal Kalra,HT City.
Film and Television Journalism (broadcast) to Archana Sharma,Lok Sabha TV.
Books,non-fiction (The Hindus – An Alternative History) to Wendy Doniger,Penguin.
Regional Languages award (print) to V P Regeena,Madhyamam Daily.
Regional Languages award (broadcast) to Prakash Noolvi,TV 9.
Sports (print) to G S Vivek,The Indian Express.
Sports (broadcast) to Anjali Doshi,NDTV.
Reporting from J-K and Northeast (print) to Teresa Rehman,Tehelka.
Reporting from J-K and Northeast (broadcast) to Arijit Sen,CNN-IBN.
Environmental Reporting (print) to Rahul Chandawarkar,DNA and Samanth Subramanian,Mint.
Environmental Reporting (broadcast) to Arti Dattatray Kulkarni,IBN-Lokmat.
Business and Economic journalism (print) to Puja Mehra,and Saumya bhattacharya,Business Today.
Business and Economic journalism (broadcast) to Shaili Chopra,ET NOW.
Foreign Correspondent (print) to Anuj Chopra (The National Newspaper and James Astill,The Economist.
Investigative Reporting (print) to The Indian Express,Mumbai Team.
Investigative Reporting (broadcast) to NDTV India.
On-the-spot Reporting (print) to Muzamil Jaleel to The Indian Express.
On-the-spot Reporting (broadcast) to Preeti Singh,CNN-IBN.
Commentary and Interpretative Writing award (print) to R Sukumar,Mint.
Reporting on Politics and Govt (print) to Maneesh Chibber,Indian Express and Sujith Nair,Malayala Manorama.
Reporting on Politics and Govt (broadcast) to Anubha Bhosle,CNN-IBN and Maya Mirchandani,NDTV.
Priya Chandrasekhar Memorial Award for excellence in reporting to Raghav Ohri,The Indian Express.
Sanjiv Sinha Memorial Award for excellence in editing to Daksh Panwar,The Indian Express.
Journalist of the Year Award (print) to J Gopikrishnan,The Pioneer.
Journalist of the Year Award (broadcast) to Udayan Mukherjee,CNBC-TV18
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