Young and veteran jounos vie for honour at the Journalism Awards Night 2016

The 17th edition of the Journalism Awards for Excellence 2015 will be held on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 in the Empire Ballroom of the Mt. Lavinia Hotel. The event which is jointly organized by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka (TEGOSL) and the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), is the most prestigious media awards event in the country.

A total of 229 applications from 11 newspaper publishing groups were received by the distinguished 11-member independent Panel of Judges for the Journalism Awards for Excellence 2015, said Journalism Awards for Excellence convener Sukumar Rockwood.

Each year the winner of the Denzil Peiris Young Reporter of the Year Award receives six-months training in Journalism at the MASCOM Journalism Training Institute in Kerala with the complements of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Foundation. He/she will be flown out by Sri Lankan Airlines and will receive a stipend of US $ 1,000.

THIS YEAR ENTRIES WERE RECEIVED FOR 14 CATEGORIES, WHICH ARE LISTED BELOW:

Mervyn de Silva Journalist of the Year, Scoop of the Year, Investigative Journalist of the Year, Best Environmental Reporter of the Year, Subramaniyam Chettiar Award for Reporting on Social Issues, Sports Journalist of the Year, Denzil Peiris Young Reporter of the Year (under 26 years), Photojournalist of the Year, Best Designed Newspaper of the Year, Business Journalist of the Year (Three Awards: Sinhala, Tamil and English), Upali Wijewardene Feature Writer of the Year, (Three Awards: Sinhala, Tamil and English), Cartoonist of the Year, B. A. Siriwardena Columnist of the Year (Three Awards: Sinhala, Tamil and English) and Prof. K. Kailasapathy Award for Reporting under Special Circumstances.

Besides the above 14 awards, The Editors’ Guild selects senior journalists for the Lifetime Achievement Awards (gold medal) and presents two special Awards - the D. R. Wijewardene Award for Recognition by Peers and the Public, and the Sepala Gunasena Award for Defending Press Freedom in Sri Lanka.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

This year the Life Time Achievement award will be presented to the following senior journalists who have served the profession.