NEW DELHI, July 23 � Three scribes from the North-east have been honoured with the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards. President Pratibha Devising Patel gave away the awards at a function last evening.
Editor-in-chief of Times Now, Arnab Goswami has been awarded Journalist of the Year (Broadcast), while Teresa Rehman of Tehelka, and Guwahati-based Arijit Sen of CNN-IBN have been honoured with Awards for Reporting from J&K & Northeast Print and Broadcast, respectively.
Arnab Goswami, a television anchor, had earlier this year been conferred with the �Assamese of the Year� Award for 2009 by News Live channel. The award was given away by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
Goswami, a Post Graduate from Oxford University, has been a visiting fellow at Cambridge University. He is the author of a book on POTA, Combating terrorism: The legal challenge, and has hosted one of the longest running news programmes on air, which won him an Asian Television Award for best news presenter.
Meanwhile, addressing the function, the President said that media needs to assess how it can adapt itself in this era of new emerging technologies. Partnerships between newspapers, television and the new media as well as multi-media format of journalism, would require a journalist to be both media savvy and tech savvy. This would also mean that training modules for journalists would need to be modified.
Audience and readers are not only better informed but are becoming more demanding as well. Media organizations and news bureaus are as good as their research establishments and back offices. I would urge those present here to look at this aspect in the profession, and develop a strong research and data base in their organizations.
�Today, the business environment has become very competitive. In an attempt to be the first to break the news, stories begin to be aired or come on the pages even before all facts have been fully verified and double checked. Honesty, integrity and conviction are the three fundamental characteristics that define a true professional journalist. These should never be compromised in your work. Moreover, the duties of journalism and the media can never be dictated by the market,� the President said.
