Mojo Story founder-editor Barkha Dutt and the Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan were among several journalists awarded at the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink awards ceremony on Friday. 

The awards under 12 categories were presented by retired Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna in Mumbai. They were sponsored by Zee, Adani Group, Concept, Indiabulls Housing Finance, L&T Partner Holdings, Viacom18, Glenmark, AdFactors PR and Diaego. 

While Dutt was awarded for reporting on Covid management under the health and wellness television category, Varadarajan was honoured for the Pegasus investigative series in the politics (print/online) category.

Thayil Jacob Sony George, a Padma Bhushan awardee, won the lifetime achievement award and Dainik Bhaskar Group’s national editor Om Gaur won the journalist of the year award. 

Newslaundry was also nominated under the politics, human rights, and health and wellness categories Ayush and Basant’s four-part series on Ayodhya land scam was shortlisted in the politics (print) category while Ashwine’s report on how daughters of ex-servicemen in Indore found it difficult to leave their houses due to a media trial was nominated in the human rights (print) category. Akanksha and Shivangi’s video report on how 44 teachers died of Covid after panchayat polling duty in Gorakhpur was nominated in the health and wellness category. And Snigdhendu’s report on how books in the educational wing of the RSS present a distorted history of ancient Asian geopolitics was nominated in the politics (print) category. 

In the business and economy section, Mathrubhumi senior sub-editor Anu Abraham and SAAM TV’s Sonali Shinde emerged as winners for their reports on returning expats and farmers in Maharashtra, respectively.

In the crime category, Print’s Angana Chakrabarti was honoured for her report on the Tripura mosque attacks while Anurag Dwary of NDTV was awarded for reporting on the Bajrang Dal leader behind the attack on Ashram set.

Mid-Day’s Jane Borges was honoured for reporting on internet users who want to be forgotten, in the lifestyle category.

In the environment section, Caravan’s Sushmita was awarded for reporting on the cost of India’s push towards a coal-based economic recovery while Tridip Kanti Mandal and Dominic Savio Diengdoh of The Quint were honoured for their report about how a village in Meghalaya fought against Uranium mining.

In the health and wellness category, Aatreyee Dhar of Down to Earth emerged as a winner besides Barkha for a report on the health hazards faced by Assam’s tea garden workers.

Kriti Dubey of BBC World and Aravind Venugopal of Malayala Manorama were awarded in the human rights category for reports on UP police investigations into lynching cases and the condition of tribal areas in Kerala, respectively.

In the politics category, besides Varadarajan, Vaibhav Walunj of Indie Journal and Jugal Purohit of BBC News Hindi were honoured for their reports on the farmers protest and the centre’s decision to impose the Covid lockdown.

In the science section, Scroll’s Karishma Mehrotra was awarded for her report on how Jharkhand is adopting renewable energy.

In the sports list, Bhavya Dore of Mint Lounge and Vandna of BBC News Hindi were honoured for their reports on the reality of being a transgender athlete in India and disabled roller skating champion Priyanka Dewan, respectively.

In the gender equality section, Sukanya Shantha of the Wire and Aishwarya S Iyer of the Quint emerged as the winners for their reports on transgender prisoners and sexual assault survivors in UP, respectively.

In the arts category, Vinay Aravind of Fifty Two and Namdev Anant Katkar of BBC World were honoured for their reports on the changes that revolutionised the Indian movie theatre and a village speaking a mix of Portuguese and Marathi.

In the big picture section, TP Sooraj of the New Indian Express emerged as the winner while Jinse Michael of Malayala Manorama was the runner-up.