Journalism Awards for Excellence on March 22
The 19th and 20th Editions of the Journalism Awards for Excellence programme will culminate with the presentation of Awards on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at the ‘Blue’, Colombo Hilton Hotel, a Press Release from the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) said.
The annual Awards Night for the years 2020 and 2021 had to be postponed due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. Over fifty awards and merit certificates will be given out for the two years at next week's presentations under restricted conditions and health protocols. An independent panel of judges comprising media practitioners and academics picked the recipients from a total of 18 dailies and 18 weeklies in the three language streams – Sinhala, Tamil and English.
The event which was first launched in 1999 by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka (TEGOSL) is now organised by The Guild in partnership with the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI). This year's event is held under the auspices of the SLPI's Press Club with the Colombo Hilton as the host hotel.
The aim of the programme is to recognize professionalism in the print media and reward excellence over a particular year. The Guild also presents awards for Lifetime Achievements and those defending press freedom.
The four recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2019 & 2020 are Mr. Upali Fonseka, Mr. D. P. Wickramasinghe, Mrs. Pushpa Rowe and Mr. S. C. Weerasinghe (Posthumous).
Mr. Upali Fonseka was a senior photographer at Lake House. He started his career in 1973 as a freelance photographer on the Central News Bureau. In 1977, he was confirmed and worked for the Tharunee and later on the Sarasaviya. He was promoted as Deputy Pictures Editor in 1995 and rose to be Associate Editor (Pictures) in 2000. He retired in 2010. He is an old boy of St. Lucia’s School, Kotahena.
Mr. D. P. Wickramasinghe known to his colleagues as ‘Wicky’, joined Independent Newspapers Ltd., as a translator and worked on the Sun newspaper in the late 1960s. Following its closure in 1974, he joined the UNP Publications Unit and it was there that he met with Mr. Esmond Wickremesinghe, former Managing Director at Lake House. After the 1977 Parliamentary elections he joined the Daily News as a translator. He has worked under 14 Editors starting with Mr. E. D. Wettasinghe. He was promoted, Assistant News Editor in 2000 and later to Deputy Provincial News Editor until his retirement in 2007. He studied at Richmond College, Galle and entered the University as an external student before graduating with a B.Com degree.
Mrs. Pushpa Rowel started her career in journalism in 1977 at Lake House in the Central News Bureau. In 1979, she joined the Dinamina as a sub editor. She rose through the ranks to her appointment as Editor of Dinamina in 2015. She retired at the end of 2019.
She studied at the Presbyterian Girls’ School in Colombo and completed her studies at Stafford Ladies College, Colombo. She passed out from Kelaniya University with a BA degree in 1972. She was the recipient of the Lifetime Award given by the Catholic Writers’ Association in 2018.
Mr. S. C. Weerasinghe (Posthumous) was a veteran journalist who passed away recently. He was a hugely respected journalist whose work ranged from news and feature writing to the art of writing lyrics that he went on to specialize in.
As a lyricist he has composed more than 1500 songs. He started his career as a journalist with the Lankadeepa. Later, he held a number of positions in the Dinamina . He was the Consultant Editor of Dinamina at the time of his retirement. The late Mr. Weerasinghe is the son of late Editor Wimal Weerasinghe and the brother of journalist and creative writer Bharathi Weerasinghe.