SHIKHA TRIVEDY

Uncovering India Invisible, Broadcast

NDTV 24X7

The Gujarat riots were covered extensively by the country’s media. When the riots ended and no new visuals were left to beam at a horrified audience, TV camera crews packed up. Shikha Trivedy, however, chose to stay on.

‘‘There were so many riot affected people I met in 2002 and I decided to follow their stories. For me the story was not over with the end of the riots. In fact, it will not be over until justice is given to the thousands in Gujarat,’’ says Trivedy, features editor at NDTV.

While Shikha unveiled one story after another, many accused her of not letting the ‘wounds’ of those affected heal. ‘‘I told them, the wounds will only heal when a woman whose daughter was killed before her will be able to say that her wounds have healed.’’

Doing the stories was no cakewalk. Living in fear, people preferred to remain quiet, unheard.

‘‘When a woman who was raped during the riots, sees the rapist walking freely in the village, will she not be afraid? It was very difficult to make such people talk especially before the camera,’’ she says.

But she persisted when most gave up.

BARKHA DUTT

Journalist of the Year, Broadcast

NDTV 24X7

The Kashmir earthquake and Kargil war were nothing. For Barkha Dutt, it was the scene at the tsunami devastated Nagappatinam that changed everything. ‘‘I felt like a speck, a very small insignificant speck in the order of the cosmos, when I beheld Nagappatinam,’’ she says. ‘‘Every story moves you, but this one blew me away, and changed my life,’’ she says.

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