‘Has free speech widened to include more voices and dissent?’: Ex-CJI Khanna at Prem Bhatia awards

Freelance journalists Parth M N and Jeff Joseph Paul have won the Prem Bhatia Award for excellence in political and environment journalism, respectively.

Parth was awarded for his work on hate crimes and marginalised communities. Paul was honoured for his  investigation on cardamom cultivation in Kerala and how the country is failing to regulate pesticide overuse and contamination in its spice trade. The jury accorded a special mention to The Quint’s Fatima Khan for her video reports on communal incidents.

At the event in Delhi, former Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna spoke on similarities and dissimilarities between the media and judiciary. “Healthy democracy needs news media which ensures effective traffic of ideas among participants. It is more effective if the participants sift through multiple positions and identify the ideal aspect or solution to the issues they face. Discussion must articulate the views and the viewers have the capacity to listen, understand and negotiate each other's point of view. We must make use of language that is respectful and not denigrating,” he said, according to LiveLaw.

The former CJI said that “our institutions do not often share a platform. However we carry the same calling – a calling to act as a watchdog institution in the service of the common citizen. In essence we are both truth seekers though we follow different paths.”

“Seventy-five years after India’s independence the question isn't whether we have the freedom of thought and expression. The question is whether freedom has grown more inclusive and more resilient. Has it widened its arc to accommodate new voices, deeper dissent, involving discourse. Has it responded meaningfully to the demand of the present day?”

The Prem Bhatia Journalism Awards and Lecture were instituted in 1955 by the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust in memory of the veteran editor of the Tribune. Last year, the trust handed over its corpus to the Editors Guild of India.

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