KARACHI): Thirteen journalists from electronic and print media have received excellence awards in health reporting for news reports appeared between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016.
The first ever ‘Excellence in Journalism Awards 2016’ were organised by the Centre for Excellence in Journalism at the Institute of Business Administration (CEJ-IBA), Karachi and the Center for Communication Programs Pakistan (CCPP), according to a press release issued here on Tuesday.
Speaking as a chief guest at the awards ceremony at the CEJ-IBA, Dr. Seemi Jamali, the Executive Director of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), said, “Both the public and private sector have to play a role in training journalists to report on issues like health with the knowledge that is required for such assignments.”
CEJ Director Kamal Siddiqi said, “Health is a neglected area in journalism and we need to do more in terms of highlighting the issues that relate to health in Pakistan.”
He added that these awards would recognise people who have written on health and encourage more reporting on this subject.
Sharing the idea behind having awards for a specific category, CCP Director Dr. Atif Ikram said there is not any established recognition in Pakistan for beat reporting like health and CEJ and CCP wanted to come up with an award for this purpose.
The winners and runners-up in the three categories are as follows: Mainstream broadcast (TV, Radio) — Winners: Ovais Ahmed Tanveer, Express News and Danyal Hasan, Dawn News. Runners-up: Safdar Hussain Shah, PTV News and Saifullah Cheema, Dawn News.
Mainstream Print/Online — Winners: Zofeen T. Ebrahim, Independent journalist and Muhammad Suleman, News Lens Pakistan. Runners-up: Izhar Ullah, The Express Tribune, Sameer Mandhro, The Express Tribune and Moniza Inam, Dawn newspaper.
District Correspondents (Print, Online, TV, Radio) — Winners: Adnan Khatri, The Nation and Mohammad Shahid, AWKUM VOICE. Runners-up: Amjad Ali, Daily Mashriq and Nisar Ahmed Khan, Dawn.
Besides the winners and runners-up, work of three senior journalists, including Mukhtar Alam, Asif Chaudhry and Shahida Parveen was also recognised for their vast contribution to health journalism.
The panel of judges included Rahimullah Yousufzai, Resident Editor of The News Peshawar; Wusatullah Khan, freelance journalist and popular talk show analyst from Dawn News and Farah Zia, editor of The News on Sunday.
