Overview
- The ceremony in New Delhi, which concluded Friday, honored 24 journalists across print, digital and broadcast platforms in 19 categories.
- Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan urged newspapers to shed a colonial mindset and defined true journalism as publishing verifiable truth in a crowded digital era.
- The Indian Express published the full winners list, highlighting work on Wayanad landslide recovery, a multi-state child trafficking racket, the surrogate mother market and illegal sales of British-era cantonment homes.
- The jury—Justice B N Srikrishna, Prof C Raj Kumar, Prof K G Suresh, Rohini Nilekani and Dr S Y Quraishi—said choices were close and weighed impact and reporting difficulty, with Nilekani saying the entries showed journalism is alive across India.
- ThePrint noted its photo editor Praveen Jain won for documenting power and access gaps in Uttar Pradesh border villages, as coverage also flagged an unresolved discrepancy in counts between early mentions of 25 awards in 18 categories and later reports of 24 winners in 19.