Press Council of India (PCI) chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai on Tuesday lamented the trend of fake and sensational news, and made a strong pitch for practice of “good journalism”.
Good journalism will “undoubtedly” shape the destiny of India, she said while addressing an event organised by the council to present national awards for excellence in journalism for the year 2020.
Eleven journalists were given the award under various categories, including rural journalism, photo journalism and reporting from conflict area.
Justice Desai said that “as the chairperson of the press council, I have to deal with complaints against the press, complaints by the press, and I must confess that there is so much negativity attached to it”.
“There are menaces of fake news, exaggeration of news, sensationalisation of news, vulgar advertisements…news inciting communal passions. We make an effort to improve the standards of journalism,” she said.
“That doesn’t mean journalism is all bad. We (also) have some excellent journalists. But we must admit there are lows also. In some places journalism has stooped down to a certain level. We are making a herculean effort to bring it to a particular standard,” the PCI chairperson said.
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Justice Desai said she was trying her best to improve the standards of journalism and called upon senior journalists to also contribute by teaching budding journalists the norms and ethics of the profession.
“As the fourth pillar, journalism will stand firm to support our democracy. It will protect us. One day, it will be a reality. That is because we have such journalists,” she said.
“But, we also must see what are the drawbacks and try to get over them,” Justice Desai added.
Press Council of India conferred the National Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2020 today. Journalist, Photo-journalists were honoured in various fields of print journalism. pic.twitter.com/TVu45Ltp2K
— Press Council of India (@PressCouncil_IN) February 28, 2023
The PCI chairperson presented the prestigious Raja Ram Mohan Award for 2020 to Anne Bhavani Koteswara Prasad, who is considered a doyen of vernacular journalism of Andhra Pradesh with his 65 year long career in the field.
The award in the rural journalism category went to Rohitashva Kumar Verma, a correspondent with Dainik Jagran. Rohan Dua, senior assistant editor of The Times of India, bagged the national award in reporting from conflict area.
Shankar Pamarthy, chief cartoonist with Sakshi Telugu Daily, received the national award for excellence in journalism in the category of ‘best newspaper art; covering cartoons, caricatures and illustrations’.
Dainik Jagran’s photographer Izhar Alam received the national award in photojournalism (single news picture category).
The national award in the photo feature category went to The Week magazine’s deputy photo editor Bhanu Prakash Chandra.
The Week’s senior correspondent P Thomas received the national award in the sports reporting/sports gesture category.
The national award in the category of development reporting jointly went to Mathrubhumi daily’s senior content writer Remya K H and Editor of Gawah Urdu Weekly Sayed Fazil Hussain Parvez.
Rudranna Harthikote, an assistant editor with Kannada daily Vijayavani, bagged the national award for excellence in journalism in the category of financial reporting and the national award in the category of gender issue reporting went to Nileena Atholi.
