Mark Twain, who explored various approaches in the Press, made a wonderful statement. He said that a journalist should do what he thinks is right. A journalist is a person who can express a common opinion on behalf of the masses; someone who can stand for justice and truth.
The 24th Annual Journalism Excellence Awards was held on Tuesday, December 12 at the Empire Ballroom the Mount Lavinia Hotel under the patronage of the Sri Lanka Press Institute and Sri Lanka Editors’ Forum. The award show aims to recognise professional excellence in journalism.
Ranjith Wijewardene, Chairman of Vijeya Publications and President of Sri Lanka Newspaper Society, was the chief guest at Sri Lanka’s finest and only internationally recognised journalism awards ceremony. Amidst the sound of ceremonial drumming, the dignitaries led by guests arrived at the hall, and after lighting the traditional oil lamp and singing the National Anthem, the ceremony started after observing a minute’s silence in memory of the deceased journalists.
Thirty-six journalists received awards and 16 received certificates of merit this year. Stanley Samarasinghe, H.L.D. Mahindapala, Sita Ranjani, S. Thilainathan and A.L.M. Naleem received Lifetime Achievement Awards.
The Silumina newspaper won the most excellence awards among weekend and daily newspapers.
Subhashini Jayaratne, features editor of Silumina, received the award for Best Environment Reporting. The Subramaniam Chettiar award for Best Social Event Reporting of the year went to Tania Moses of the Silumina. Tharaka Wickramasekera, news editor of Silumina, received the award for the Best Breaking News Reporting of the year. Fauz Mohammed of Silumina received the Best Sports Journalist and Vajira Liyanage of the Silumina, received the Upali Wijayewardene Award for Best Feature Writing of the Year.
The Dinamina newspaper won the merit certificate for the Best Creative Newspaper of the Year. Lake House received four excellence awards and two merit certificates.
For this year’s awards, outstanding journalists in the respective fields were selected from among 354 applications from seven newspaper organisations by an independent jury of 13. The number of applications submitted from Sinhala media was 158 while the number of applicants were 107 from English medium and 89 from the Tamil medium.
Selections for online newspapers were made by a four-member judging panel. All this was coordinated by Sukumar Rockwood, Convenor of the Journalism Excellence Awards program.
At this year’s awards ceremony, the Best Journalist of the Year award was won by Sulochana Ramaiah Mohan of Ceylon Today, while the best cartoonist award (Sinhala) was won by Awantha Atigala of the Ada newspaper. The award for the Best Photographer of the Year was presented to S. Abeysirivardhan of the weekend Aruna.
Best Columnist of the Year B.A. Siriwardena Special Award went to Nimal Francis of the Irida Divaina. This year’s award for the Best Investigative Reporting was won by J.K.K. Lalith Charminda of the Divaina. The Upali Wijewardene award for Best Feature Writing went for Tharanga Ratnaweera of the Irida Divaina.
Mawbima’s W.A.V. Pramesh Wickramasinghe won Best Financial Reporting of the Year. The award for best news feature was won by Rahul Samantha Hettiarachi for Ada newspaper. Lankadeepa newspaper won the award for Best Page Layout in Sinhala media.
The Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Scholarship awarded by the Lakshman Kadiragamar Foundation to the recipient of the Young Journalist of the Year award went to Sunday Times journalist Tharushi Weerasinghe, opening up opportunity for her to study a high-level training course at MASCON, a leading journalism institute controlled by the Manorama Group in Kerala, India.
From the Sinhala media, four newspaper excellence awards were given to Silumina, three excellence awards each to Lankadeepa and Irida Divaina, two excellence awards to Ada newspaper and one excellence award each to Mawbima and Aruna newspapers.
The introduction of two new awards this year was also special. Awards were also presented for the Best Creatively Designed News Website and Best Video Storytelling for Online Journalism.
The major sponsors of the event were John Keells Holdings, Aitken Spence, Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka Insurance Company, Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank and Oulu Water Bottles.
The Sri Lanka Editor’s Guild organised the Journalism Excellence Awards in a grand manner with the support of the Sri Lanka Press Institute and related trade unions, the Sri Lanka Press Association, the Free Press Movement and the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association.
Director General of Government News Dinith Chinthaka Karunaratne, Chairman of ANCL Prof. Harendra Kariyawasam, President of Sri Lanka Press Institute Kumar Nadesan, President of Sri Lanka Editors Guild and Director of Wijeya Newspapers Siri Ranasinghe and other members of Sri Lanka Editors Guild were present on the occasion. A large number of representatives of media organisations and leaders of citizen groups attended this event.
There are many memories of this colourful night, which was organised to appreciate journalists who are doing their profession quietly by directing everyone’s questions to an open platform. Gathering Sri Lanka’s own journalists for a few hours under one roof is not a trivial matter. The lovely dance team of Chandana Wickramasinghe Dance School succeeded in making the event even more beautiful.
Translated by Jonathan Frank
Pix: Nissanka Wijeratne and Gayan Pushpika
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