NEW YORK CITY -- SAJA Group, Inc. and the South Asian Journalists Association will honor the winners of the 2008 SAJA Journalism Awards contest at its 14th annual dinner on Saturday, June 21, at Columbia University in New York.
These annual awards recognize excellence in reporting about South Asia,as well as outstanding reporting by South Asian journalists and students in the U.S. and Canada. The Awards ceremony is part of the SAJA's international convention, which takes place June 20-21 and is expected to draw 1,000 journalists and guests from the U.S., Canada, Europe and South Asia (South Asians and non-South Asians will participate). The awards will be presented at Columbia University.
SAJA will also pay tribute to the memory of slain reporter Daniel Pearl, who, as South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, was a regular participant in SAJA's cyber activities. The seventh Daniel Pearl Award for outstanding print reporting on South Asia by U.S. and Canadian journalists will be presented that night. This year's winner is Yaroslav Trofimov of The Wall Street Journal.
According to Monika Mathur, chair of the SAJA awards committee, "it was a highly competitive year and these awards honor some of the finest coverage on the South Asian focus and the work produced by South Asians in our industry."
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| Gopal Raju |
Also at the dinner, the newest member of the SAJA Hall of Fame will be inducted posthumously: Gopal Raju, the founder of India Abroad and a leading South Asian journalist for several decades. "Mr. Raju paved the way for many South Asian journalists working in the U.S. today," said Sandeep Junnarkar, SAJA president and professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. "He also helped establish the South Asian ethnic press in the United States."
The Hall of Fame recognizes veteran U.S. journalists who helped shape coverage of South Asia, as well as pioneering South Asian journalists for their contributions to U.S. media.
"He was also tremendously supportive of SAJA from the time of its founding," said Sree Sreenivasan, SAJA co-founder and a Columbia journalism professor.
Raju, who died in April, joins previous inductees Gobind Behari Lal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for science writing in 1937; Brij Lal, veteran broadcast journalist who joined ABC News in 1952 (and Gobind's nephew); Rajan Devdas, photojournalist for more than 60 years; Amrit Kakaria, who spent more than 45 years as a journalist in US and India; James W. Michaels, former editor of Forbes who first covered India during its struggle for independence and revisited the region in reports over five decades; A.M. Rosenthal, the former New York Times editor who covered South Asia as a young correspondent and continued to write about the region as a columnist; and Peter Bhatia, executive editor of the Oregonian and veteran newspaper journalist.
SAJA also announces the winners of its 2008 journalism scholarships, totaling $8,500 this year:
- Sonia Moghe who graduated from Texas A&M University in Spring 2007, will begin her Masters of Science program at Columbia University this fall. She is winner of the second CNN-SAJA Scholarship for Broadcast Journalism ($2,000).
- Ishani Ganguli, who is currently attending Harvard University Medical School and plans to pursue a career in medical journalism, regularly contributes to the Boston Globe's Health and Science section. She receives a graduate student scholarship ($2,000).
- Ambreen Ali, who is graduating from Northwestern University with a Master in Science in Journalism this June, will begin an internship with Agence France-Presse later this year. She also receives a graduate student scholarship ($2,000).
- Zeeshan Aleem, graduated from George Washington University this spring and has been working for BBC World and BBC America since January this year. He receives the undergraduate student scholarship ($1,500).
- Aysha Sultan, who is graduating from Ward Melville High School, will major in journalism at Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA this fall. She receives the high school scholarship award ($1,000).
The SAJA Scholarships are made possible, in part, through the generous contributions of the Arun I. and Asmita Bhatia Foundation; Hansa and Ramesh Butani of Darshan TV and CNN.
This year's awards contest reflected the higher visibility of South Asians in the United States and the increased attention paid to the subcontinent, including the business and political aspects of U.S.-South Asia affairs. Below is a list of winners of this year's awards. The awards will be presented on Saturday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m. at a gala awards ceremony at the Roone Arledge Auditorium at Columbia's Lerner Hall (115th St & Broadway) as part of the four-day SAJA Convention (http://www.sajaconvention.org).
The convention and dinner are open to the public. All are welcome. Visit http://www.sajaconvention.org for details, including ticket information. All questions about the convention should be addressed to SAJA convention team at sajaconv [at] gmail [dot] com. Those interested in press passes should send relevant information to saja [at] columbia [dot] edu.
There are still some high-profile sponsorship opportunities available. Join organizations like CNN, The New York Times, UnitedHealthcare, City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, Sony Pictures Classics, Gutenburg Communications and others as SAJA sponsors. See details at http://www.saja.org/about/sponsorship.html