CHENNAI: The convocation of the 2022-23 batch of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) and the presentation of ACJ awards for journalism was held at Music Academy here on Wednesday.
Chander Uday Singh, senior advocate, Supreme Court of India, delivered Lawrence Dana Pinkham Memorial Lecture on “Reclaiming the Freedom of Speech and Expression in an Orwellian Dystopia”.
Chander Uday Singh recollected various incidents of muzzling of freedom of the press in India. He said, under the current regime, the freedom of the press is under attack, adding it is sad to see that India had slipped to 161 from 150 in the World Press Freedom Index 2023, out of 180 countries. He also presented ACJ Journalism Awards, 2022.
Arunabh Saikia bagged the award for investigative journalism for “Investigation: Adani Power Stations get coal from Hasdeo Arand mine allocated to Rajasthan” which appeared in Scroll. K P Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for social impact journalism was bagged by Neel Madhav and Alishan Jafri for “Clicks and Bait” published in The Caravan and Ashish Yechury Memorial Award for Photojournalism was given to Tanmoy Bhaduri for “Children of India’s burning coalfields dream of a fire-free future” published in Context.news, a Thomson Reuters Foundation platform.
Nalini Rajan, Dean of Studies, ACJ, Sashi Kumar, Chairman, Media Development Foundation and Asian College of Journalism and N Ram, trustee, Media Development Foundation were also present.