Najeeb Jung asks journalists to be intellectually honest

Underlining the need for objectivity and truthfulness in journalism, Najeeb Jung, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, on Monday said journalists are writing history that researchers in the future will rely on. "Fifty years from now, researchers will be drawing from his reports and quoting from their reports," Jung said while speaking at a function organised to confer the Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award for Excellence in Print Journalism 2015.

Drawing attention to the problem of reporters' own ideologies finding their way into their reports, Jung said journalists must understand the necessity of writing truthfully. "Ideologies are meant to be expressed in the editorial or opinion pages," he said. Reported news, instead, has to be truthfully presented. "It is imperative (for a journalist) to be intellectually honest," he said.

Emphasising the immense responsibility riding on a journalist's shoulder, Jung said it was because of reporters and news photographers that the world got to know of the plight of the Syrian refugees. He gave the example of the powerful picture of the body of Aylan, a three-year-old Syrian boy, which was found face down, washed up on the shore after the boat in which his family was trying to escape to Greece collapsed. That image changed the world opinion towards Syrian refugees.

Business Standard's Senior Feature Writer Manavi Kapur (left) receives the Special Mention award at the Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award for Excellence in Print Journalism, 2015 function, from Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung, in New Delhi

Earlier in the evening, Jung presented the Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award to Principal Feature Correspondent Nikita Puri. The award, given every year to a journalist under 30 years, carries a prize of Rs 50,000, a silver pen and a citation. Puri, who is based in Bengaluru, is the 17th recipient of the award, instituted by Business Standard and the Nazareth family in memory of Seema Nazareth, a young Business Standard journalist who died in March 1999.

The citation for the award recognised Puri's "incisive and purposeful reports on a wide range of issues". "These reports," the citation added, "are a snapshot of a society in transition."

This year, a Special Mention award was also conferred to Senior Feature Writer Manavi Kapur who is based in Delhi and joined Business Standard in September 2013. The award carries a citation and a prize of Rs 10,000. Acknowledging her good work, the jury found that Kapur's reports, "many of which were filed from distant destinations, show great empathy with the everyday concerns of the common man". Celebrating her "fine and comprehensive observation of people and events," the jury noted that her "wide-ranging explorations of diverse issues are crafted with rare excellence".