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Chameli Devi award presented

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

RECOGNITION: The former Prime Minister, I. K. Gujral, presents the Chameli Devi award to Rupashree Nanda of the CNN-IBN in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI: The former Prime Minister, I.K. Gujral, on Monday presented the Chameli Devi Award-2007-08 for outstanding woman journalist to Rupashree Nanda of the CNN-IBN for her focussed reporting on the deprived and the dispossessed people of rural India.

Ms. Nanda exposed the red wheat import scandal, reported on the migration and suffering of the drought-hit people of Bundelkhand and official callousness towards the miners of Jharkhand.

The jury commended the works of Pallavi Aiyar of The Hindu based in China for giving the Indian readers a glimpse of the different facets of China and Nirupama Subramanian, also of The Hindu, for reporting from Pakistan despite the tough conditions there. Aditi Tandon for her investigative articles in The Tribune and Deepti of ETV were also appreciated.

Freedom of the press, commercialisation of media, rising demand for entertainment-based news, than information, and the need for insurance for journalists working in adverse conditions were among the topics debated upon at a panel discussion on “Media, Freedom and Democracy in South Asia” that followed the award presentation function here.

Those who participated in the discussion, moderated by Editor-in-Chief of Indian Express Shekhar Gupta, were Waqar Mustafa from the South Asian Free Media Association, Lahore; Matiur Rahman, Editor of Prathom Alo, Dhaka; and Sunanda Deshapriya, Media Analyst at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo.

“In Pakistan, curbs against the press have always backfired and more so recently,” said Mr. Mustafa in his presentation, providing a glimpse of the media’s position in Pakistan. He said the right to information for the press was not something that the government could either give or take away as and when it wanted.

Mr. Mustafa also noted that media houses need to wake up to the realities of working journalists today.

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