Young journalists sat alongside veterans, political reporters shared the spotlight with news-gatherers from entertainment, and men and women who follow the cover drives on fields caught up with analysts of micro-finance. Yet, in the winners gallery at the seventh Ramnath Goenka Journalism Awards in Delhi on Tuesday, all these journalists were united by excellence and courage. ?Excellence in journalism is not in short supply,? said Viveck Goenka, Chairman and Managing Director, The Express Group at the awards function.
The Ramnath Goenka Journalism Awards honours excellence and courage in journalism, a long tradition that this year?s chief guest, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, lauded in her speech.
At ITC Maurya?s Kamal Mahal, the rows of chairs filled fast and early as guests from a wide range of fields got together to salute the best in Indian journalism from 2011 and 2012. Among those present were Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, Union Food and Consumer Affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan, JD(U) President Sharad Yadav, Minority Affairs minister Najma Heptullah, Senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, Justice Supreme Court Arjan Kumar Sikri, National General Secretary, BJP Member of Parliament Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Election Commissioner HS Brahma and Robin Dhowan, Chief of Naval Staff.
The evening also marked the first Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture, delivered by journalist and activist Mariane Pearl. ?I have come today to listen to you,? said the chief guest Mahajan, encapsulating what many guests felt at the ceremony. Pearl began her talk by saying, ?I am coming to speak at a deeply troubled time.? She gave a deeply personal account of her life during and after the kidnapping and killing of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan by militants 12 years ago.
The Awards recognised achievements in categories such as Environment Reporting, On The Spot Reporting, Reporting from J&K and The Northeast, Commentary and Interpretative Writing and Books (non-Fiction), with the coveted Journalist of the Year 2012 award going to Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV 24×7.