Sanskriti Awards for Teresa Rehman, Bahar Dutt

Two young journalists, Teresa Rehman (left) of Tehelka and Bahar Dutt of CNN-IBN, are among five winners of the Sanskriti Awards for 2009.

Now in its 30th year, the Sanskriti Awards are given to young talents between 25 and 35 years of age, and will be presented in New Delhi on Novemebr 20, according to a press release. Each award carries Rs 50,000 in cash and a citation.

# An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Teresa Rehman is Tehelka’s principal correspondent in the Northeast. Her photo-story on an alleged fake encounter in Manipur in June 2009, won global acclaim and was picked up by newspapers and magazines worldwide.

# Bahar Dutt, a trained wildlife conservationist, has worked for the last ten years on key wildlife issues in India and abroad. She played a key role in working with and rehabilitating the Bahelias, a community of snake charmers in Rajasthan and Haryana.

Photographs: courtesy Sanskriti Pratishtan

Except that the cartoonist is in multicolour

An exhibition of cartoons by Balraj K.N., in Bangalore, from October 31 to November 14. Daily from 10 am to 6 pm. Venue: Indian Cartoon Gallery, No. 1, Midford House, Midford Garden, off M.G. Road.

… may please treat this as a personal invitation

The names of the key engineers who demolished the great wall in Indian journalism—the proprietors, the publishers, the brand managers, the spineless editors and journalists who refused to stand up to the advertiesrs and space sellers—are missing from the gabfest of the Foundation for Media Professionals.

Were they not invited?

Or did they decline to come?

Also read: Pyramid Saimira, Tatva & Times Private Treaties

Times Private Treaties gets a very public airing

SUCHETA DALAL: Forget the news, you can’t believe the ads either

Does he who pays the piper call the tune?

SALIL TRIPATHI: The first casualty of a cosy deal is credibility

Selling the soul? Or sustaining the business?

PAUL BECKETT: Indian media holding Indian democracy ransom

Does he who pays the piper call the tune?

PRATAP BHANU MEHTA: ‘Indian media in deeply murky ethical territory’

The scoreline: Different strokes for different folks

A package deal that’s well worth a second look

Knight News Challenge: Win upto Rs 25 crore

NEWS RELEASE: The John F. and James L. Knight Foundation has extended upto 15 December 2009, the deadline for the the global Knight News Challenge that awards up to $5 million (approximately Rs 25 crore) for ideas that use digital experiments to transform community news.

The Knight News Challenge is open to innovators worldwide and has three rules: “Projects must use digital, open-source technology, distribute news in the public interest and be tested in a local community.”

The contest, now its fourth year, has chosen 35 winners from 7,000 entries.

Applicants can enter under the “open category, which allows the public to view and comment on their submissions, or the “closed” category, for those who are not ready to make their ideas public.

For more information: see the video, read the FAQ

For applications: click here

Link via Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

Prisoners without a name, cells without a number

Outlook special correspondent Amba Batra Bakshi and Indian Express principal photographer Renuka Puri join hands to bring home the life and lives of the women behind the walls of the largest complex of prisons in South Asia, Tihar.

*Also read: Prisoner without a name, cell without a number

Tehelka: Hard time tales

Business Standard: Life behind bars

Mint: Behind Tihar’s pink walls

It’s all official about the return of Sanjaya Baru

For days and weeks, New Delhi was abuzz with rumours of the return of Sanjaya Baru (in picture). Would he go back to the Prime Minister’s Office, where he had served as media advisor? Would he be sent to the Planning Commission? Would he be in charge of programme implementation?

Well, it turns out he will be the new editor of the business daily Business Standard from January 2010 in place of T.N. Ninan, who is a minority share-holder in the paper along with his wife, the media critic Sevanti Ninan.

Baru will report to Ninan as editor of the paper and then as editorial director of the company.

Also read: Sauce for a paper ain’t sauce for a TV station?

Conflict of interest and interest in conflicts

External link: Sanjaya Baru on H.Y. Sharada Prasad

The lady, obviously, will have something to say

Foundation for Media Professionals

Dialogue: Undercover reporters, scam busters or abettors?

Thursday, August 20, 10.30 am to 1 pm

India International Centre, New Delhi

Partner:  Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach?

A number of Indian media houses have set up media schools over the years, partly to give something back to the profession, partly because they think existing journalism schools do not turn out recruitment-ready products, but largely to ensure a steady inflow of journalists at a time of heightened competition when everybody is poaching.

The Times of India set up the Times School of Journalism in Delhi, closed it, and then reopened it in Bombay as the Times School of Media Studies. The Indian Express started the Asian College of Journalism in Bangalore which moved to Madras when The Hindu took over.  The Malayala Manorama group opened the Manorama School of Communication. The Pioneer has the Pioneer Media School. And so on.

Into this crowded space, the northern faction of the Indian Express group has bounced into the academic space by launching the Express Institute of Media Studies.

Visit the website: www.indianexpress.com/exims

Daniel Pearl Awards for investigative journalism

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is inviting entries for the Daniel Pearl Awards, named for the Wall Street Journal reporter killed in 2002 in Pakistan.

The Awards recognize and promote cross-border investigations that involve reporting in at least two countries on a topic of world importance.

The competition is open to professional journalists of any nationality, working individually or in teams, in any medium. The awards criteria require the work to have been first published or broadcast between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2009.

Two $5,000 first prizes and five $1,000 finalist awards will be made. One of the first prizes will go to a US-based reporter or news organization, and the other will be awarded to a journalist or entity outside the United States.
The judges may also award a special citation for work that is unusually enterprising or conducted under especially difficult circumstances.

Winners will be announced at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in April 2010.

Visit the ICIJ website: publicintegrity.org

Download the application form

Link via Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

Also read: “I don’t think this is the business of a journalist”

Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards

The Ramnath Goenka Memorial Foundation is inviting entries for the 2008 Excellence in Journalism awards.

The awards are open for both print and broadcast journalists in 17 categories with cash prizes and scholarships on offer. The last date for entries is 31 August 2009.

Visit www.expressindia.com/rngf for further details.

Email: rngf@expressindia.com

Also read: 2009 India Press Photo awards invites entries