Virakesari’s Robert wins South Asia Economic Integration Summit Contest

Robert Antony, the news editor of the Virakesari newspaper, has won the first prize in the South Asia Economic Integration Summit Contest for his article titled “Economic integration is key to alleviating poverty, unemployment and tensions in the SAARC region”.

Robert’s article secured first place, beating contributions from more than 60 journalists from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, who participated in the ‘Benefits of South Asia Economic Integration: A Journalism Summit’ hosted by the Donald W. Reynolds National Centre for Business Journalism at Arizona State University at the JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai from February 24 to 27.

The contest was announced by the Reynolds Centre after the Summit to honour the journalists for their reportage inspired by the topics discussed, with the first, second and third place winners awarded $1000, $750 and $500 respectively. The article that best covered the Summit was also awarded $500.

Syeda Masooma from Pakistan Today was awarded the second prize for her article titled ‘People, not politicians, are the key to Indo-pak integration’ and Zulfiqar Ali Khan of Pamir Times, was awarded the third prize for his article ‘Gilgit-baltistan at the Crossroad of CPEC’. The prize for the Top Summit Coverage was won by Sujit John, of the Times of India for his article ‘Pakistan and other South Asians are like you and I. And we can do much better together’.

Robert Antony who studied Nattandiya, Kottaramulla Al Hira Maha Vidyalaya joined the journalism field fifteen years ago and finished his diploma in journalism in the Sri Lanka College of Journalism.