Journalism Awards for Excellence 2017, on Tuesday
The 19th edition of the Journalism Awards for Excellence programme will culminate with the annual ‘Awards Night’ at the Empire Ballroom of the Mount Lavinia Hotel, the host hotel for the gala event.
This year there are 259 applications for 16 categories from 37 Daily and Weekly newspapers in the 3 language streams – Sinhala, Tamil and English. Applications were also received from Online News Websites that published a newspaper for the ‘ Best Designed News Website,’ said Journalism Awards for Excellence 2017 Convener Sukumar Rockwood.
On a suggestion from the Panel of Judges (Print Media), a new category was introduced: ‘Best Healthcare & Medical Report of the Year.’
This event, launched in 1999 by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, is now organised by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka in partnership with the Sri Lanka Press Institute, and is the biggest Media Awards programme in the country.
"The aim of the programme is to recognize professionalism in the Print Media of Sri Lanka and reward excellence over a particular year. It also honours with Lifetime Achievement Awards, those who have served the Journalistic profession for more than 40 years. A Scholarship is offered by the Lakshman Kadirgamar Foundation for the ‘Denzil Peiris Young Reporter of the Year’, to follow a Diploma Course at the prestigious MASCOM Institute in Kottayam, India," Mr Rockwood said.
The 5 recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2017 are:
A. S. Fernando
Cyril Wimalasurendra
Merrill Perera
Sinniah Kanesan
A. L. M. Saleem
The Editors’ Guild also presents two Special awards by its own nomination -- the D.R. Wijewardene Award for 'Recognition by Peers and the Public' and the Sepala Gunasena Award for ' Defending Press Freedom in Sri Lanka'.
A.S. Fernando
Mr. Fernando joined the Daily News Editorial in October 1980 as translator (Sinhala-to-English). Before that, he was a senior officer in the Government Health Clerical Service. He became staff reporter and covered the Health round and Political opposition. He was promoted News Editor in April 1990. He joined the Daily Mirror newspaper as Deputy Editor and later joined the The Nation as Consultant Editor, until his retirement in July 2012.
He has also written several columns such as the Political satire column titled ‘ Holmangedara Lodge’ in the Daily Mirror, under the pen-name ‘Will O’ the Wisp,’ a political satire column titled ‘ Srinath Varma’s Consultancy Parlour’ to the Daily Mirror, under the pen-name ‘ Snooper,’ a regular column titled ‘ Mirror Reflections’ to the Daily Mirror under the pen-name ‘ Aesop,’ a regular feature titled ‘ Our world’ to the Little Enquirer of the Daily Mirror, under the pen-name ‘ Seeya,’ political column titled ‘ Random Peeks at Politics’ to the The Nation under the pen-name ‘ Bystander’, and a regular political column titled ‘ Mid-week Politics’ to The Nation online Daily edition, under the pen-name ‘ Asanga.’ In his retirement he continues as a freelance writer.
Cyril Wimalasurendra
Starting in the 1950’s, Mr Cyril Wimalasurendra spent the greater part of his life spanning over 60 years as a journalist. Cyril, initially, was an English Language teacher, giving it up later to embrace journalism. He started working first at Lake House and as an Area Manager, wrote articles for Lake House newspapers. He later joined the Upali Newspapers almost from its inception. He is fluent in both Sinhala and English languages.
Merrill Perera
Merrill Perera is a senior Editor with 50 years of experience, not only in writing and sub editing, but also in the area of layout and designing of newspaper pages with the help of his artistic skills. "The contribution of these skills has earned him recognition and he is considered to be one of the leading layout and design men in the country," said Mr. Edmund Ranasinghe, in his introduction to Merrill’s book ‘Armour Street: Here I Come.’ Merrill’s career has taken him through 3 newspaper groups – Lake House, Sun Group and Upali Group. During his days with the Divaina newspaper, his reports from the Middle East, after the Gulf War, kept loved-ones at home abreast of the changing situation there. His amiable and friendly lifestyle earned him the praise of his superiors', such as Mr Gamini Weerakoon. Looking back, he said it all started in 1965, when Mr Ranjit Wijewardene was Chairman of Lake House.
Sinniah Kanesan
Mr Sinniah Kanesan has more than 40 years experience as a journalist in various positions. A student of Uva College, Badulla, he joined the journalistic profession in 1977, as the Ratnapura Regional Correspondent for the Davasa Group’s Tamil language newspaper Thinapathi-Chinthamani. In 1987, he was appointed Office Correspondent for the same newspaper. In 1989, he joined Lake House as Regional News Editor and also covered Parliamentary affairs. In 2007, he joined the Sudar Oli newspaper as News Editor. In 2012, he joined the Virakesari Weekly newspaper Editorial as a Freelance journalist and continues to work there.
A.L.M. Saleem
Kalabooshana A.L.M. Saleem of Nintavur has been a full-time Regional Correspondent for the Virakesari newspaper since 1966. Many years ago, he wrote for the Thinapathy and Sinthamany newspapers. He is Senior Advisor to the Ampara District Media Association and the Divisional Cultural Council of Nintavur, Vice President of the Arts and Cultural Council and a member of the Mediation Board. He also writes under the pseudonyms of “Anarkali “and Avathani.” He was awarded the title “Kalabooshana” in 2008, and the Eastern Province Chief Minister’s Award, “Viththagar” in 2010. He has also received many Awards for his work in the Media, such as; “Sahithiyasuri” by the Digamadulla Buddhist Sinhala Association, “Maruthamunai” by the Islamic Tamil Literary Conference and “Ponvila Kanum Saleem” by the Ampara Journalists Association.