Instituted last year, the Ramnath Goenka Awards for excellence in journalism have set a much-needed benchmark for journalism in India. As Viveck Goenka, chairman of the Ramnath Goenka Foundation and Chairman and Managing Director of The Indian Express Group, pointed out, “There is a ceaseless deluge of information on the internet: of news, views, and more commonly, views as news. It’s here that good journalists have to step in with their compasses and their searchlights. That’s why never before has there been a more pressing need for the media to build public trust and credibility.”

All the prize-winning reports today, he added, fulfilled this trust. These were stories that would never have been told had these reporters not gone after them. The award for Uncovering India Invisible (print) went to The Indian Express’s Vivek Deshpande for his reports from the Naxal belt and to Nilanjana Bose of CNN-IBN for her report on AIDS orphans.

In all, 24 awards were given to stories that met the highest standards of journalism. “The fact that none of last year’s winners were repeated this year is a compliment to the profession and says that is in safe hands,” said The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta.

This year, four new awards were introduced. Recognising the role the media can play to increase awareness and overcome prejudices on HIV/AIDS, the Ramnath Goenka Memorial Foundation in association with USAID, Avert Society and Health Communication Partnership/Johns Hopkins University, presented two awards for excellence in HIV/AIDS reporting. This year, the winners were Loksatta’s Shekhar Vasant Deshmukh (Marathi) and Sadhna Mohan (English) of AIDS Buzz.

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