NDTV India’s’ Executive Editor Ravish Kumar has been honoured with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for ‘speaking fearlessly and upholding professional integrity’.
A Sober, Incisive, And Well-informed Journalist
The award citation said that Ravish Kumar is one of India’s most influential journalist and held his show, Prime Time, as the one ‘dealing with the real-life and underrated problems of ordinary people’. “If you have become the voice of the people, you are a journalist. As an anchor, Kumar is sober, incisive, and well-informed”, the citation said.
“In a media environment threatened by an interventionist state, toxic with jingoist partisans, trolls and purveyors of ‘fake news,’ and where the competition for market ratings has put the premium on ‘media personalities,’ ‘tabloidisation,’ and audience-pandering sensationalism, Ravish has been most vocal in insisting that the professional values of sober, balanced, fact-based reporting be upheld in practice,” the citation said.
The official website noted Kumar’s efforts as a parameter for the honour and said, “In electing Ravish Kumar to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his unfaltering commitment to professional, ethical journalism of the highest standards; his moral courage in standing up for truth, integrity, and independence; and his principled belief that it is in giving full and respectful voice to the voiceless, in speaking truth bravely yet soberly to power, that journalism fulfils its noblest aims to advance democracy,”
Ravish Kumar is one among the five recipients this year
The only Indian to be awarded the eminent honour this year, Kumar is one of the five recipients of the esteemed award.
These are the five recipients of Asia’s premier prize and highest honor, the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees. #RamonMagsaysayAward pic.twitter.com/HrLG1qVt6L
— Ramon Magsaysay Award (@MagsaysayAward) August 2, 2019
The other winners of the award include Myanmar’s Ko Swe Win, who is also a journalist; Thailand’s Angkhana Neelapajit, a human rights activist; Philippines’ Raymundo Pujante Cayabyab, musician; and South Korea’s Kim Jong-Ki, an activist working for the management of violence and mental health issues in youth.
The recipients will be rewarded at a ceremony which will be held on Sept. 9, in the capital city of Philippines, Manila
The Magsaysay award winners of this year will be receiving a certificate and a medallion with an embossed image of Ramon Magsaysay facing right in profile
What Is The Ramon Magsaysay Award?
Established way back in 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the collaboration of the Philippine government, Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s highest honour and is popularly referred to as “Asia’s Nobel Prize”
Celebrated in the memory of exemplary leadership example set by third Philippine President, Award being named on his name, The Magsaysay award is given to the individuals or organisations in Asia, who showcases similar selflessness and transformative influence that the late and beloved Filipino leader had exhibited.
Previous Indians Who Received The Award
National icons like Satyajit Ray (1967) MS Subbulakshmi (1974) and RK Laxman (1984) have been honoured with the award in the past.
Many Indians, who belonged to the journalist background have also been honoured with the Magsaysay award in the past, these prominent names include Amitabha Chowdhury (1961), Boobli George Verghese (1975), Gour Kishore Ghosh (1981), Arun Shourie (1982) and Palagummi Sainath (2007).
The Magsaysay award has also been received by notable Indian personalities like the creator of the common man cartoon, R.K Laxman (1984), a former IPS officer, Kiran Bedi (1994) and current Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal (2006).
‘Threats Did Not Hold Him Back’
Ravish Kumar was raised in Jitwarpur, Bihar. He pursued his early interest in history and public affairs at Delhi University and has been working for the NDTV since 1996. People have recognised and praised him for being unbiased and fearless, not holding himself back and bringing the truth out even after receiving threats many times for his fearless plain-speak.
The Ramson Magsaysay foundation acknowledged the journalist’s strong resolute while addressing him.
“He does not baulk at calling the highest officials to account or criticizing media and the state of public discourse in the country; for this reason, he has been harassed and threatened by rabid partisans of one kind or another,” said the foundation.
