Journalist to get” Patrakar Kaksh” with full fledged facilities which will be located at the centre of city of Panaji by this year assured Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant. He was speaking as the chief guest on the occasion of 46th GUJ Foundation Day and GUJ Journalism Awards (2021, 2022) organized by Goa Union of Journalists in the city today.
Congratulating all the winners of GUJ Journalism Awards in all fields, Dr Sawant informed that Budget provision for E-bikes to journalist has been made and we are working on it. He also assured that budget provision to housing scheme for journalist will be made in next year. Sharing his view on the credibility of news, Dr Sawant said Journalist should first verify the facts and then publish it otherwise the credibility of the media will be low, he added.
Guest of Honour, Shri Yuri Alemao, Opposition Leader extending his greeting on the occasion of 46th GUJ Foundation Day congratulated the journalist who have won the award for their special reports in different category. Such awards and recognition are important as they keep the journalist motivated. Raising his concern over fake news Shri Alemao said today’s politics strives for fake news. There are organized fake news agency funded by politician and political parties. Fake news has power to assassinate character of public man and also has power to ignite riots and it is therefore appropriate that GUJ has organized a lecture on Media Credibility in the time of fake news.
Shri Dipak Bandekar, Director, Department of Information and Publicity who was also the guest of honour said media is the biggest medium for every section of people in the country. Shri Bandekar said like GUJ, Department of Information and Publicity has also instituted the Goa State Journalist Awards scheme to encourage local Journalist to exhibit their talents. As per the budget assurance made by Chief Minister, pension amount has been enhanced to Rs 10,000 per month recently and it has been already disbursed from the month of June he informed. Shri Bandekar requested all the journalistic fraternity to create synergy between government and society.
Chief Minister felicitated two veteran rural journalists (in honour of veteran journalist Suresh Walve), Ramnath Desai and Dayanand Rane for their dedicated service in the field of rural journalism.
Earlier Panel discussion on Media Credibility in the time of fake news were conducted on the ocassion. Shri Rajesh Menon, Resident Editor, Times of India Goa, Shri Nidhin Valsan (IPS) SP, North Goa and Shri Pandurang Goankar Editor Goan Varta were the resource person and Shri Sandesh Prabhudesai (Veteran Journalist ) moderated the discussion.
The panel of judges for the GUJ Journalism Awards 2021 and 2022 were Shri Sandesh Prabhudesai, Veteran journalist/editor goanews.com, Shri. Sandeep Naik (Veteran photojournalist/ Gulf News, AFP, World Economic Forum etc) and Shri. Rajendra Dessai Veteran journalist/ former editor, Dainik Herald.
Ms Gauree Malkarnekar (The Times of India) was awarded with Excellence in Environmental Journalism (In honour of Felicio Cardozo) for her report ‘Water dept’s 2021 report advises against free supply and ‘Batless Bat Island for the year 2022 .In the category of Excellence in Environmental Photography (in honour of Cyril Dcunha), Shri Rakesh Mundye (The Times of India) for his photograph ‘Dirty Games (2021) and Shri Sagun Gawade (Herald) for his photograph ‘Vagaries of Nature’(2022) were awarded.
Shri Newton Sequeira (The Times of India) for his twin reports ‘Nightmare at 3am/ With patients on brink’ and Gerard de Souza (Hindustan Times) for his report ‘A Goa village where dead sign sale deeds’.were awarded in the category of Excellence in Investigative Journalism (In honour of Lambert Mascarenhas) for year 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Shri Sagun Gawade (Herald) for his photograph ‘Strength of a Woman and ‘She is Democracy, Respect her’ was awarded in the category of Excellence in photojournalism for the year 2021 and 2022 respectively .
In the category of Excellence in Rural Journalism (In honour of Suresh Walve) Shri Ajay Lad (Goan Varta) for his report ‘लॅाकडाऊनमुळे बांधकाम व्यावसायिक बनले शेतकरी’ and Nirgosh Gaude (The Navhind Times) for his report ‘Anganwadi beneath the power line functions without electricity’ were awarded for the year 2021 and 2022 respectively .
Shri Ramnath Pai Raikar (The Navhind Times) for his report ‘A performer for all seasons’ and Ms Gauree Malkarnekar (The Times of India) for her report ‘In Goa, tiger presence felt not just in forests, but also temples” were awarded Excellence in Art and Culture journalism for the year 2021 and 2022 respectively .
In the category of Excellence in Crime Journalism (In honour of Audumber Shinde) for the year 2021, Miss Gauree Malkarnekar (The Times of India) for her report ‘Highly unusual to see a body washed up ashore at Calangute’ and Smt Vibha Verma (The Goan) for her report ‘Probe reveals how land grab accused forged documents) for the year 2022 were awarded.
Shri Manoj Shirodkar (Herald) for his page design ‘Euro 2020 and Shri Sunil Dicholkar (Herald) for his page design ‘Goa’s Fertility Rate Drops’(2021) were awarded in the category of Excellence in Layout and Page Design
In the category of Excellence in Sports Journalism, Shri Marcus Mergulhao (The Times of India) was awarded for his report ‘Goan With The Wind’ (2021) and for his report ‘6 games in 10 days, Goa’s football matches fixed for third year’ (2022)
Shri Loukik Shilkar (Prudent) for his report ‘Tons of medical & plastic waste burnt in the open near GMC’ was awarded in the category of Excellence in TV/ digital journalism for the year 2021and Shri Upendra Naik (Gomantak TV) for his report ‘राजकारण थांबवा, उपाय शोधा, पणजीचा विकास करा’ for the year 2022
In the category of Excellence in video journalism, Shri Upendra Naik (Gomantak TV) for his report ‘मिरामार | एका कावळ्यासाठी यंत्रणेची धावपळ | All lives matters’were awarded for the year 2022.
