The Hindu : Award presented to journalist

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003

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National

Award presented to journalist

By Our Staff Reporter

Air Marshal (retd.) O.P. Mehra presenting The Prem Bhatia Memorial Award for Political Journalism to Praveen Swami of Frontline in New Delhi on Monday. — Photo: Rajeev Bhatt .

NEW DELHI AUG. 11. The Prem Bhatia Memorial Award for Political Journalism for 2003 was today conferred on Praveen Swami, Special Correspondent with the fortnightly magazine, Frontline.

Air Chief Marshal (retd.) O.P. Mehra gave away the Rs.1-lakh award to Mr. Swami ``for his reporting and analytical pieces, most recently on the Army operations in Kashmir''.

The award comes ``in recognition of his decade-long scrutiny of the complex relationship between government, defence forces, insurgency, intelligence and terrorism''. His reports and articles on Kashmir over the past decade have been widely appreciated.

Mr. Swami has ``documented chinks in India's intelligence set-up as well as questioned the unhealthy relationship between the generals and politicians. His recent expose on `Operation Sarp Vinash' has made the critics and admirers sit up and take a second look at India's counter-insurgency doctrines and practices''.

The award citation noted that ``besides authoring a book on the Kargil war, Mr. Swami has written a number of articles in academic journals, all on Kashmir-centric topics. He represents the new generation of Indian journalists that does not believe that no questions need be asked about `national security'. His kind of journalism embodies capacity and competence for the much- needed informed dissent''.

The Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust also awarded the Prem Bhatia Memorial Scholarships to three young journalists who will carry out research on media-related subjects. Each scholarship is for Rs. 60,000 for one year.

The former Foreign Secretary, J.N. Dixit, gave away the scholarships to Riyaz Ahmed Wani, Dhananjay Kumar and Amulya Gopalakrishnan.

Riyaz Ahmed Wani, who is working with the daily Greater Kashmir, will carry out his research on ``Better economic alternative for rural Kashmir as a means to fight insurgency'' while the topic of Dhananjay Kumar of Hindustan is ``Dangers of unskilled and unscrupulous health reporting and media role in the ensuing health care scenario''. The topic chosen by Amulya Gopalakrishnan of Frontline is ``The state of the arts in the media marketplace''.

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