Ramnath Goenka Awards: Karan Thapar, P Sainath adjudged ‘Journalist of the Year’

The Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards were given away at a special ceremony held in the Capital on April 13, 2009. Television commentator and interviewer Karan Thapar and P Sainath of The Hindu received the Journalist of the Year awards for broadcast and print, respectively. They were among 29 TV and print media journalists awardees. The Awards were given away by Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan.

The Awards celebrate excellence in journalism, recognise courage and commitment and showcase outstanding contributions and individuals every year. The Awards were instituted by The Express Group as part of the centenary year celebrations of founder Ramnath Goenka.

The event also saw two book releases – ‘The Prize Stories; Best in The India News Business 2006-07’, and ‘India’s Elected’.

The Awards ceremony culminated in a debate on whether the line between a journalist and a politician was blurring. Taking part in the discussions were Barkha Dutt, Group Editor, NDTV; Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN; Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, India TV; Dainik Jagran’s Sanjay Gupta; Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson and Editorial Director, Hindustan Times; Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief Express Group and The Hindu’s P Sainath.

Following is the complete list of winners:

 Reporting from Jammu & Kashmir and the North East, Broadcast V K Shashikumar and Nidhi Razdan, CNN-IBN and NDTV

 Prakash Kardaley memorial award for civic journalism, Print, Sayli Udas Mankikar, The Hindustan Times

 Regional Award Language, Print, M.S. Ragavender& Shital Marjaria, TV9

 Regional Award Language, Broadcast, Rudraneil Sengupta, CNN-IBN

 Excellence in Journalism Award Hindi, broadcast, Umashankar Singh, NDTV

 Excellence in Journalism Award Hindi, Print, Punya Prasun Bajpai, Pratham Pravakta

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Uncovering India Invisible, broadcast, Mridu Bhandari, CNN-IBN

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Uncovering India Invisible, Print, Neelesh Mishra&Nagendar Sharma, The Hindustan Times

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Foreign Correspondent Covering India, Print, Joseph Jonson, The Financial Times

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Business and Economic Journalism, broadcast Abhishek Upadhyay, IBN-7

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Business and Economic Journalism, Print, P Vaidyanathan Iyer, Business World

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Political Reporting, Broadcast, Sreenivasan Jain, NDTV

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Political Reporting, Print, Subrata Nagchoudhury & Ravik Bhattacharya, Indian Express

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Sports Journalism, Broadcasting, Rudraneil Sengupta, CNN-IBN

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Sports Journalism, Print, Sandeep Dwivedi

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Film and Television Journalism Broadcast, Vaishali Sood, CNN-IBN

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Film and Television Journalism, Print, Shoma Chaudhary Thelka

 Excellence in Journalism Award for Books (Non-Fiction), Print, Ramchandra Guha

 Excellence in reporting on HIV/AIDS, English, Print, Dnyanesh V. Jathar, The Week

 Excellence in reporting on HIV/AIDS, Marathi, Print, Savita Vikram Harkare, Lokmat

 Environmental reporting, broadcast, Swati Thiyagarajan, NDTV

 Environmental reporting, Print, Sonu Jain, The Indian Express