Chairman of Express group Viveck Goenka and Executive Director of The Indian Express Anant Goenka present a token of gratitude to Rajnath Singh. (Express Photo by Neeraj Priyadarshi)IT was the spirit of democracy, transparency and courage that dominated the award ceremony of the13th Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in New Delhi, last week. The hall at the Hyatt Regency Delhi was packed to capacity. Even the cold was not a deterrent for the who’s who of Indian politics, who were at the annual event.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was the chief guest, gave away the prizes to 29 winners across 18 categories from print and broadcast journalism. There were politicians across party lines and other eminent personalities from the fields of business, media and law at the event.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh gave away the prizes to 29 winners from print and broadcast journalism.In the audience were Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh; Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and KJ Alphons; National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah; BJP leaders Bhupender Yadav, GV Narasimha Rao, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Anil Baluni and Manoj Tiwari; Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Manish Tewari; Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh; Communist Party of India National Secretary D Raja; Janata Dal (U)’s KC Tyagi;Samajwadi Party’s Javed Ali Khan; All India Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien; Justice (retd) AP Shah; textile revivalist Jaya Jaitly; Rajesh Ranjan, Director General, Central Industrial Security Force; and former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi.
BJP leaders Sudhanshu Trivedi; Manoj Tiwari; Bhupender Yadav; S Y Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner; Union Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal were among the other guests at the award ceremony. ( Express Photo by Neeraj Priyadarshi)The evening also had a panel discussion on “#MeToo in the Newsroom: What editors can and should do”, which was moderated by The Indian Express Deputy Editor Seema Chishti. It had four women editors and newsroom leaders as participants: Dhanya Rajendran, co-founder and editor-in-chief, The News Minute; Meenal Baghel, editor, Mumbai Mirror; Ritu Kapur, co-founder and chief executive officer of The Quint; and Rupa Jha, head of Indian Languages, BBC World Service. Pertinent questions and issues regarding the movement were discussed along with what can be the best way ahead for women’s rights, and how newsrooms can be made safer for women.
