The New Crusading Guide’s Anas Aremeyaw Anas and two of his colleagues have won the 3rd Karpoor Chnandra ‘Kulish’ Award for Excellence in Print Journalism – 2009 in India.
The team won the award for their undercover exposés of happenings in the Accra Psychiatric Hospital and the operations of a Chinese sex mafia. The prize of a medal, certificate and cash award of $11,000 was presented by the Prime Minister of India, H.E. Manmohan Singh.
Below is a statement from the organizers of the event, the Rajasthan Patrika Group of India
3rd KC Kuilsh International Award for Excellence in Print Journalism – 2009 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confers award to Ghana team, winners receive 11,000 USD for stories on Madhouse and Chinese Sex Mafia
Newe Delhi, 6 June: The 3rd Karpoor Chnandra ‘Kulish’ Award for Excellence in Print Journalism – 2009 of Rajasthan Patrika group was conferred today at a grand ceremony by the prime minister Manmohan Singh to the team of ‘The New Crusading Guide’ a daily newspaper from Accra, Ghana.
A medal, certificate and cash award of USD 11,000/, was given to the team for their stories on Ghana’s Madhouse and Chinese Sex Mafia. At the award ceremony held at New Delhi today at Hotel Taj Palace, appreciating the winners the prime minister said that ‘media has crucial role in a democracy and should strive for stability and mitigating tension in the society. Indian media should also help preserve the values, culture and identitiy of the nation.’
He critisized the trend of paid news and sensational journalism.
The award set up in the memory of founder of the Patrika group recognizes the outstanding work of the team of journalists published in a daily newspaper. The theme for this year’s award was ‘Inclusive Development’. The jury panel for the award included Gloria Brown Anderson of The New York Times, S. Gurumurthy, journalist, Yoginder K Alagh, Chairman, IRMA, and Gulab Kothari, Editor-in- Chief, Patrika group.
BL Joshi, Governor of UP presided over the ceremony. He said that Kulishji was a rare combination of a great determination and a man of vision, fired with the zeal of a missionary to bring enlightenment and knowledge to the people of Rajasthan – not particularly known for progressivism at that period of time, through serving them objective news, information and comments on contemporary events.
For this, he chose to plant the sapling of a Hindi newspaper which, over the years, has grown into a mighty oak. He congratulated the winners for their commitment and missionary zeal they exhibited through their work, for which the award has been accliamed for.
Gulab Kothari, Chief Editor, Rajasthan Patrika group in his speech said : ‘On account of the diversity of language and culture in India, the mass communication system has not developed traditionally. The regional newspapers had to see many ups and downs on account of the language.’
He said that the Rajasthan Patrika passed through many challenges and has withstood temptations and threats. It also became a victim of many governments but it has steadfastly stuck to the ideal cherished by late Shri Karpoor Chandra Kulish founder of rajasthan patrika.
Chief Minister of MP, Shivraj Singh Chauha, Ex CM Rajastham, Vasundhara Raje, Central minister Ambika Soni, CP Joshi, Sachin Pilot, NN Meena and other dignitaries were present at the ceremony. 7 Merit Awards: Seven outstanding stories were also awarded for merit awards. Dayashankar Shukla from Hindustan ( story Farzi Khate from Hindustan) ; Vinod Kumar (story Kerala Yatra from Malayala Manorama, Kottayam); Zara Murao (story Inspired India from Hindustan Times) ; Santosh Singh (story 42 Harassed many in Jail from The Indian Express), Reji Joseph (story The Priest with the Midas Touch from Deepika Daily, Kottayam) received the medal and certificate from Ambika Soni, Minister, I &B and Dr CP Joshi, Minister, Road Trasport.
Prisoners of Ignorance and tradition from La Opinion, Los Angeles; Missing Person of Balochistan from Daily Jang, Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan were also among the merit winners.
The Winners : Anas Areneyaw Anas, Mary Fianko Akuffo and Selease Kove- Seyram – a team of journalists from The New Crusading Guide, Accra, Ghana have been chosen to be the winners for their investigative story campaigns titled ‘Undercover inside Ghana’s Madhouse & Undercover inside the Chinese Sex Mafia’.
These campaigns have been an outcome of a seven month investigated work across four regions -South Africa, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Sweden where the leader of the team posed as a psychiatric patient to uncover significant issues of discrimination and activities of charlatans in relation to mental illness and the various approaches to its cure. As a result of the story, the parliament of Ghana has drafted the mental health bill.
In another campaign the Chinese sex mafia was busted and three traffickers were imprisoned for 41 years and the rescued girls were rehabilitated with the intervention of Chinese government.
Source: Citifmonline.com/Ghana
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