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Honoured by
the Guild
Journalists
downed their pens, editors forgot their deadlines and subs their
pages as they gathered last Tuesday at the Mount Lavinia Hotel for
the print media event of the year, the Journalism Awards of Excellence
2002. Organised
by the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka for the fifth successive year,
the event seeks to recognize excellence within the profession and
also to highlight the significant contributions over the years of
several veteran journalists. Amantha Perera
of the Sunday Leader won the coveted Mervyn de Silva Journalist
of the Year 2002 award for 'an impressive ability to tackle a wide
range of subjects and consistently good coverage of varied topics'.
The Sunday Times
had two main awards: The Best Designed Newspaper Award for the third
consecutive year and the Upali Wijewardene Award for the Feature
Writer of the Year won by Deputy Editor of The Sunday Times Kumudini
Hettiarachchi for 'her exhaustive features and human interest reports'. While
the awards were the suspenseful climax of the evening, a thought-provoking
documentary by ITN earlier traced the growth of newspapers both
in the north and in the south, reflecting the trials and triumphs
of the Fourth Estate.
Light entertainment
was provided with colourful interludes by the lissome dancers of
the Channa-Upuli Ensemble. A distinguished
gathering of diplomats, friends of the media and journalists from
the country's newspapers was present to celebrate the event. This year's ceremony was jointly sponsored by Upali Newspapers, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon (ANCL), Wijeya Newspapers, Express Newspapers, United Newspapers together with SriLankan Airlines, Ceylon Tobacco Company, National Savings Bank, People's Bank, National Lotteries Board, Triad, Powerhouse and the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka. The Mount Lavinia Hotel was the host-hotel.
Mervyn de
Silva Award for Journalist of the Year: For displaying an impressive
ability to tackle a wide range of subjects and consistently good
coverage of varied topics – Amantha Perera of the Sunday Leader. D. R. Wijewardene
Award for earning the appreciation of peers and the public:
For her heart-rending features and consistently good coverage in
the Sunday Leader of the plight of the destitute and people in dire
circumstances, prompting quick responses from the public –
Ranee Mohamed. Upali Wijewardene
Award for Feature Writer of the Year: shared between Kumudini
Hettiarachchi of The Sunday Times for her exhaustive features and
human interest reports and D. Nihal P. Abeysinghe of the Silumina
for his feature articles. Merit Mention
under the Upali Wijewardene Award for Feature Writer of the
Year Neil Siriweera of the Sunday Lankadeepa. B.A. Siriwardene
Award for Columnist of the Year: For his “King Barnet”
column in the Irida Divaina - Harith Gunawardena. Prof. K.
Kailasapathy Award for reporting under special circumstances:
For his reports in the Thinakkural – Ratnayam Thayaparan. Sports
Journalist of the Year: For his all round contribution to sports
journalism and reports published in the Daily Mirror – Vijitha
Fernando. Cartoonist
of the Year: Mr. Ramachandran of the Thinakkural. Photographer
of the Year: For his outstandingly good news and feature photographs
published in the Daily Mirror, Lankadeepa and The Sunday Times -
Daminda Harsha Perera. Merit Mention
in the Photographer of the Year Category: a) Eranga Jayawardena
for his pictures in the Island, Divaina, Sunday Island and Irida
Divaina. b) Lakmal Wasantha
of the Lakbima. Best Designed
Newspaper of the Year: Young Reporters
of the Year: For good reportage in the Veerakesari - Sri Gajan.
Merit Mention in the Young Reporter of the Year category: shared
between Tissa Ravindra Perera and Gaya Kumara Weerasinghe of Lakbima. Special
Awards of the judges: a) For his environmental
reporting: K.A. Jagath Kanaheraarchchi of the Sunday Divaina. Long and
distinguished service gold medal awards Mr. Dalton
de Silva Awards
for Sri Lanka's veteran journalists Edwin Ariyadasa,
during his long and illustrious career, worked in the Dinamina,
Janatha, Silumina, Daily News and Sunday Observer as a writer and
sub-editor and finally became the Editor of the Navayugaya He is now a
consultant to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources Management. D.F. Kariyakarawana
was Editor of the Silumina and Janatha newspapers and was instrumental
in introducing the Yowun Janatha and Kreeda tabloid newspapers. He also set
up the Sri Lanka Newspaper Society and the Working Journalists Association.
He has completed 58 years as a journalist, and continues to contribute
to local newspapers. Renowned political-cartoonist
Jiffry Yoonus counts more than 50 years in the profession, having
started out at the Thinakaran newspaper in 1952. He worked at the
Communist Party organ, Aththa and then the Ravaya newspaper, but
has now stopped drawing due to ill-health. Annaluxmy Rajadurai
joined the Virakesari newspaper back in 1962 and has been Editor
of Jyothi, a family tabloid and of the weekly Mithran, a sister
newspaper of the daily Virakesari. She is presently
in charge of Kalai Kesari and Mangaiyar Kesari, two weekly tabloid
supplements of the Virakesari Group. Dalton de Silva
has been a reporter, feature writer, news editor and associate editor
at the Daily News and The Island. A veteran journalist for more
than 50 years, he was also a foreign correspondent for Agence France
Presse (AFP) and Bureau Chief of Reuters. He is a founder member of the Foreign Correspondents' Association (FCA) of Sri Lanka. During the past 12 years, Mr. de Silva has been lecturing in journalism courses. |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
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