KARACHI – Continuing our endeavour to encourage and promote the spirit of journalism and honour the best journalistic talent across Pakistan and India, CNN International today announced the winners of CNN Young Journalist Award 2007 (CNN YJA) at a gala ceremony in New Delhi, India, in association with CNN-IBN, ‘Outlook and ITC Welcome group.’
The award commemorates the spirit and drive of CNN to uphold journalistic integrity and ethics.
This year, in addition to the existing CNN YJA category, two new awards have been instituted – CNN Journalist Award – a special award in celebration of Pakistan and India’s 60th year of independence, salutes the best of insightful Pakistani and Indian journalists and their courage in highlighting controversial issues and concerns of their respective societies.
The second new award category introduced this year is the CNN Photo Journalist Award to recognise the rich tradition and contribution of the photo journalists have made to this industry in Pakistan and India.
Priyanka Pathak Narain from the Mint, Mumbai and Anchal Vohra from NDTV 24×7, New Delhi won the title, ‘CNN Young Journalist of the Year 2007’ in the Print/Online and Television categories respectively. Priyanka’s print story, “Sethusamudram series”, and Anchal’s television story, “Abuse in Ghaziabad Ashram”, were chosen as the best winning entries from the gamut of entries received from across Pakistan and India. Both the winners have won all-expenses paid trip to the News Xchange Conference 2008, an internationally recognized networking forum for broadcasters and media professionals across the globe.
Ananya Sengupta, from The Telegraph, Mumbai has been adjudged as the Runner up in the Print/Online category for her story, “Heartbreak House” and Maryiam Pervaiz from Dawn News, Lahore, Pakistan has won the Runner up award in the Television category for her television package, “Chained People”. Both have won a Nokia N Series phone, trophy and citation.
Rubab Karrar from The Herald, Karachi, Pakistan was awarded the winning title ‘CNN Journalist Award’ for her story “Inside the Mosque”. She was awarded with, a Laptop, trophy and citation.
Sujan Singh from Planman Media, New Delhi was awarded the winning title ‘CNN Photo Journalist of the Year’ for his pictorial depiction of “Police comes to the Culprits Rescue”. He was awarded with a Digital SLR Camera, trophy and citation. Shahbaz Khan from The Press Trust of India, New Delhi has been adjudged as a Runner up for his series of photographs on “Police Cover Up Prime Accused of Noida Serial Killings”. He was awarded with, a Digital Camera, trophy and citation.
Congratulating and extending his good wishes to the winners and participants of CNN YJA 2007, Phillip Turner, CNN New Delhi bureau chief said, “I congratulate all the winners, runners up and all those who participated in CNN Young Journalist Award 2007 and I hope they will continue to pursue the fundamentals of journalism – fairness, balance and objectivity. I would especially like to congratulate the winners of CNN Journalist Award and CNN Photo Journalist Award and thank all those who participated and made these newly introduced categories so successful. As a journalist myself, I am delighted to be associated with awards that honour responsible and quality journalism.”
Mallika Kapur, reporter and producer, CNN International said,” We are delighted at the tremendous response that CNN YJA has received for all the categories in the region. We continue to be amazed at the high quality of journalism that we see every year from this competition. We see CNN YJA as a way to pay tribute to the spirit of unbiased journalism in Pakistan and India. “
The CNN YJA awards were instituted in 2003, with the aim to recognize and nurture journalistic talent among young media professionals in India and promote quality journalism. In 2004, the CNN YJA was extended to include Pakistan.
To coincide with CNN’s 25th anniversary in 2005, a special category, ‘CNN Cameraperson of the Year’ Award, was introduced. In 2006, furthering CNN’s commitment to reward promising and aspiring journalists in India, the CNN Aspiring Journalist Award was introduced for students of journalism and the CNN Citizen Journalist Award was instituted to encourage citizens of India, not being professional journalists, to play an active role in the process of collecting and disseminating news and information on issues that have an impact on society.
Source: The Nation
Date:12/19/2007
