Indian Express reporter wins prize

Indian Express reporter wins prize
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 21
Indian Express Staff Reporter Sweta Ramanujan has won the Journalism for Tolerance Prize, along with Subhrata Basu of Ananda Bazaar Patrika and Sri Lanka-based Sharni Jayawardena of Young Asia Television. Each prize carries a cash award of Euro 1000.

The prizes, awarded by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) for South Asia, were announced at a special ceremony held in Colombo. The Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune Group of Publications, Mr H.K. Dua, was a member of the jury.

Ramanujan bagged the prize for her story “Mill on the Loss” in “the print / online English” category. Basu’s report “Silent Revolution in Shabdagaon” brought her laurels in the “print / online language category”. Jayawardena from Sri Lanka won the prize for “Defiant Art¨ in the “broadcast category”.

Supported by the European Commission, the prizes are aimed at promoting tolerance, combating racism and discrimination, besides contributing to an understanding of cultural, religious and ethnic differences.

The finalists included Massoud Ansari from Pakistan, Indian national Basharat Peer, Uvindu Kurukulasuriya and Sharmini Boyle from Sri Lanka, Tank Panta and Srilal Sah from Nepal. The jury also commended Naresh Fernandes (India), Nilofar Suhrawardy (India), Nirmala Sharma (Nepal) and Jeyarani M (India).

Besides Mr Dua, the other jury members included Pakistan’s former Press Minister Minhaj Barna, Executive Editor of Ananda Bazaar Patrika Suman Chattopadhyay, Editor of Hindustan Mrinal Pande, Associate Editor (Features) of Kathmandu-based The Rising Nepal Jagadish Pokhrel and Sri Lanka- based Media critic-cum-Lecturer Sunil Wijesirwardena.