ACJ announces list of winners for 2024 journalism awards

Chennai: Hemant Gairola of Article 14 has won the Award for Investigative Journalism instituted by the Asian College of Journalism for his story of how banks have been fudging figures of numbers enrolled in various flagship schemes of the Narendra Modi government by compelling employees to sign up customers for these schemes without their consent.

Vandana Menon of The Print and Shamsheer Yousaf, Monica Jha and Sriram Vittalamurthy of The Wire for their stories titled ‘Rajasthan’s elderly are victims of ‘digital murder’; eKYC gaps leave lakhs without pension” and ‘Breaking the nets: An oral history of India’s fisherwomen’, a five-part multimedia series respectively were awarded the K P Narayana Kumar Memorial Social Impact Journalism

Palanikumar M of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) clinched the 2024 Ashish Yechury Memorial Award for Photojournalism for his photo essay ‘There is no such thing as professional grief’.

The three-member awards jury was chaired by veteran journalist Kalpana Sharma, independent journalist and writer Priya M Menon, and documentary photographer and visual artist Harikrishna Katragadda.

While the winner of the investigative journalism award received a trophy, a citation by the jury and Rs two lakhs, the winners of the social impact award and the photojournalism awards received trophies, citations and Rs one lakh.

Adrija Bose for her investigation ‘Telegram: Predators Are Selling Child Sex Abuse Videos For Rs 40’ published in Boom and Abir Dasgupta for his investigation, ‘Adani ties with Adi group make convenient sense’ published in The Morning Context were conferred Special Mentions in Investigative Journalism by the jury.

Gunjan Sharma of the Press Trust of India and Akhil Sivanand and Muhammed Subith UM from Mathrubhumi were declared as Special Mentions of K P Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism for their reports on the conflict in Manipur and on the psychological impact of the Wayanad landslide disaster on the survivors.

Sriram Vittalamurthy’s photo essay on ‘The crumbling fish markets of Mumbai’ published in The Wire, Sudip Maiti’s ‘Odisha’s ghost villages’ on the impact of sea erosion in Ganjam district published in the VillageSquare, and Arun Sreedhar’s ‘Break the rod, spoil the strike’ published in the Malayala Manorama have been declared as the Special Mentions of Ashish Yechury Memorial Award for Photojournalism.

The ACJ Awards Committee received 240 entries from 101 news organisations and freelance journalists in four languages.

“Hemant Gairola’s story stands out not just for the detailed manner in which he has substantiated his findings with documents and testimonies, but also for the quality of writing,” the jury said in the citation.