Ever year, the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards felicitates journalists from print and broadcast media for their contribution to the field. This year, 59 journalists were awarded last week in recognition of their achievements in various categories like on-the-spot reporting, commentary and interpretative writing, reporting from Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, environment reporting, sports reporting and so on.

Journalism awards never quite attract the kind of attention some film or music awards do, but they serve as an important reminder of the hard work many journalists put in to bring us stories that matter and have a far-reaching impact. In the echo chamber of Twitter, where the chance of a story going viral is contingent on how sensational it is, many such stories get lost and don’t get the attention they deserve.  It then becomes doubly necessary to remember and highlight works of good journalism, and indeed, the journalist behind it.

We interviewed five winners of these awards and asked what recognition means to journalism and journalists.

Sreenivasan Jain, Managing Editor, NDTV

Journalism is going through a credibility crisis; do awards that highlight good work help re-establish some faith?

I don’t agree that there is a blanket credibility crisis. I think there is a blind spot to intelligent, meaningful journalism because it upsets the cliché of “media in crisis”. So in that sense, yes, the awards help point out the obvious – that alongside shoddy work, there is also a lot of good work that is being done.

What importance do awards have? Do they boost morale among journalists, since a lot of the hard work they do often goes unrecognised.

Of course, awards are encouraging. I thought the Ramnath Goenka Awards made a decent effort to award lesser known, but no less-talented journalists. 

You’ve been much-appreciated for your Gaza reportage. In hindsight, do you think you were lucky to have got the footage of Hamas fighters? And does luck usually favour good/prepared journalists?

The element of luck with the rocket assembly is hardly something that struck me with hindsight. I acknowledged from the outset that it was sheer good fortune to have been at that location and at that time for both the assembly and the launch. No, there is no correlation between luck and talent. But yes, talent can obviously help leverage a lucky moment, to make sure you don’t let it pass.

If you had to give an award this year for best journalist, who would you give it to and why?

I can’t identify one individual. There are several journalists whose work I follow and admire; their numbers only seem to grow. 

Advice you’d like to give to cub reporters…

A) Be a news junkie. B) Factual rigour X 10.

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Priyanka Dubey, former Senior Correspondent, Tehelka Hindi 

You’ve won the award for your story that focused on Bundelkhand where 15 girls were burnt alive in just one year. Tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while reporting on the issue.

The first challenge was to identify this story sitting in an office in the state capital, given that very little and distorted information normally reaches the capital. Just a bit of basic drilling and questioning often reveals that the situation on ground is very different. One needs a very good network to identify a story that is happening in distant villages: in this case deep inside the barren fields of Bundelkhand. Then, the second challenge is to convince your editor about the story. After all this, when I was on the field, everything worked out since I speak Hindi and Bundelkhandi very well and I had a good network of local people on ground.

What importance do awards have for journalists?

As someone who has worked in vernacular media and now works as a freelancer for both Hindi and English publications, I think the recognition of my work helps me at two basic levels. First, it becomes easy to pitch ideas to national/international publications. Good work always pulls more work. So it helps in increasing the prospect of working on more good stories and being published in respected publications.

Second, award money comes as important support in the rough lives of freelancers and vernacular media reporters, who are generally not paid very well.

Is it true that vernacular media teams suffer from lack of resources?

Yes, I think vernacular media teams suffer lack of resources across the nation, especially in print. There is huge disparity in the working conditions of an English language reporter and a reporter working in any vernacular language. For example, the means of transport allowed on field, story advance, time given to work on field, accommodation, budget for a story, salaries and so on – all are extremely different. Vernacular language reporters work on unbelievable shoe-string budgets. But some of the most extraordinary reporting is happening in vernacular languages.

Tehelka as a brand has gone through a lot of uncertainty over the past one year? How did this period affect you and your colleagues? 

I worked in Tehelka Hindi from August 2010 to January 2014. Since February this year, I have started working as a bilingual freelance journalist. True, Tehelka has gone through a lot of uncertainty in the past one year. And everyone in the team was affected. But my former colleagues in the Hindi team of the magazine have been doing very good work all these month. Moreover, Tehelka Hindi bagged the 2010 Hindi category Ramnath Goenka Award last year. This year also, the 2011 and 2012 Hindi category award went to the Hindi magazine. I hope this gives them encouragement to carry on their good work.

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Vinod Kumar Menon, City Editor, Mid Day

Journalism today is going through a credibility crisis, do awards that highlight good work help re-establish some faith?

It does. Awards primarily highlight an issue and that is the reason a journalist writes about it — to bring to the attention of people and authorities the lacuna in the system or processes.

Being a scribe can be a thankless job – everyone is quick to point out flaws. What is the most frustrating thing about being a journalist for you, and has an award made life a little easy?

I don’t think an award makes much of a difference to a journalist’s work. I cannot possibly go meeting people and say, “Hey, you know I received an award or I am an award-winning journalist!” Clearly not. But, having said that, I would like to say that in the field of specialisation that one operates in, one’s peers, and the people one interacts with tend to view the award and the scribe a little more seriously. At least, I hope they do!

Advice you’d like to give cub reporters…

There is no substitute for hard work. That’s a well-known cliché, I know; but it happens to be true. I have seen some cub reporters who are too lazy to do field work and rely on the telephone to talk to people. No matter how senior you are, you need to meet your contacts. As a cub reporter, you have to move out of the office, meet people, make contacts. Read what others are writing and be abreast with the news.

 What’s more satisfying – an award/recognition for a story or impact on ground?

It is the impact on the ground. Undoubtedly, there is no substitute for that. I did my series on water scarcity in Mokhada village in Thane rural area, and the State Minister for Tribal Development, Rajendra Gavit, took cognisance of the ground reality there. The ministry has provided the affected villages with 5,000- litre capacity plastic tanks with taps so that water is collected in them, unlike water tankers that poured water into dry wells, which were tested at BMC laboratory and found that the water was unfit even for animal consumption, forget human. To know that villagers don’t have to scramble for water and not have to put in their hands to scoop it out — well, that is an impact that I, as a reporter, feel very satisfied about.

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Arti Kulkarni, Senior Editor and Anchor, IBN Lokmat

You won the award for environment reporting and one of the stories was on illegal mining in a tiger reserve in Maharashtra. How did you get the story idea?

Environment journalism is my passion. The illegal mining was taking place in Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Vidarbha. An NGO, Satpuda Foundation, had filed an online petition against it. Another NGO called Ecopro, and the people of Chandrapur were agitating against it. I got to know about it and did my own research to prove how the mine was illegal.

I also won the award for reporting on power plants in Konkan and their impact on the environment. Konkan is my homeland, so I had been observing these power plants (thermal, nuclear and geothermal) and their affect on Konkan’s environment. Then I undertook an in-depth research with environmentalists, local activists and decision makers to report on the story.

Electronic media has come under a lot of cloud for sensationalism. Do you think all the flak is justified?

Electronic media is actually a very effective medium. So we can’t blame the medium for this. We, as journalists, should use this medium properly.

What do awards/recognition mean to you?

Filmmaker Ramgopal Verma had once said: “Success to me is power to do what I want.” So this award has empowered me to do excellent environment stories and programmes on more such issues.

If you had to give an award this year for the best journalist, who would you give it to and why?

Rajdeep Sardesai for getting the pulse of Lok Sabha elections and for his ground reports from main constituencies.

There are lots of reports on sexism women face in the media industry. What has been your experience?
Sexism is everywhere, but my experience in the field has been different. As a woman, I have never hesitated in speaking to people…I can interact with men, women and children very easily. When people watch you working, they speak to you. Whenever I go on the field, I realise the beauty and power of femininity.

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Reji Nair, Sub Editor, Malayala Manorama

You won the award for reporting on organ donation. How did you get the story idea?

In India, every minute a patient dies because of internal organ diseases that can be cured by organ transplantation. But the transplantation rates are alarmingly low. In Kerala, 20,000 patients die in a year only because of renal and liver diseases. And every year almost 3,500 accident deaths occur here, many of which are brain deaths. In the same hospital, the brain dead patients and those who need organs remain unknown to each other.

One of my friends, who is a doctor, told me that brain dead patients can donate their organs to save many lives. In India, almost one lakh people undergo brain death. But they are either unaware or unwilling to donate organs. A bridge between donor and recipient is almost absent. In my district Calicut, there was an NGO called ‘HOPE’. This organisation was inspired by the idea of organ donation, especially cadaver transplantation. Their activities also made me to think about such an idea.

What importance do awards have for journalists?

Awards, in a way, renew your commitment towards responsible journalism.

There are lots of reports on sexism women face in the media industry. What has been your experience?

Many women journalists face such issues in the visual media. But in print, there are less problems.