The full list of the winners of the Ramnath Goenka excellence in journalism awards for 2008-09.
Print journalist of the year: Siddharth Varadarajan of The Hindu
Broadcast journalist of the year: Arnab Goswami of Times Now
After presenting the awards, the President of India, Pratibha Patil, outlined “crisis of content and triumph of the trivial” as the two challenges facing journalism.
“…On the one hand, newspapers have to offer readers much more than what were the headlines on the TV screens yesterday. On the other hand, television channels have to constantly find ways of filling up 24 hours. Sometimes, this can lead to a crisis of content. Issues can be trivialised while trivial issues can become headlines.”
Amen.
Image and photograph: courtesy The Indian Express
IJR 
Sir
One has lost all respect for the this Award after the jury chose to honour Shamsher Singh of Aaj Tak for his alleged reports on Kandhamal riots of 2008. His selection has surprised and shocked media circles in Orissa. Mr Singh was nowhere in sight in Kandhamal when things were happening. The man known for his most unethical practices used the footage sent by stringers in Kandhamal without sharing credits with them.Ask the collector and SP of Kandhamal and they will tell you more!
Can’t Goenka awards committee go for crosschecking in order to protect its image and credibility ? Down with awards fixing.
unbelievable sir…unbelieavable.. some of the winning names… shocking…
Sir, is it end of the road for good journalism?
I am confused !! Journalist or Anchor ??
Wow ! That anti-Hindu of the Hindu (Siddharth Varadarajan) received award!!! Acknowledgment of good work on good subjects by good individuals comes from good citizens, not fixed ceremonies….Who cares what crap awards are distributed to creeps BY creeps ?
[…] I’d only like to add that one would have expected better from Goswami who was awarded best Broadcast journalist of India (2008-2009), an award presented by someone no less than the Indian […]
Ramnath Goenka was admittedly a legendary figure in Indian journalism, someone from whom Editor after Editor, reader after reader, drew inspiration for the bold stands he took.These are days when vested interests are using his name to promote themselves. Some of the comments above are self-explanatory. Is a journalist known by the awards he receives or the work he does?