Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday presented the Swadeshabhimani Kesari award for 2020 to veteran journalist and former associate editor of Deshabhimani S.R. Sakthidharan.
The Swadeshabhimani Kesari award is the highest honour given by the State government for comprehensive contribution to journalism. It comprises a purse of ₹1 lakh and a statuette designed by sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman.
The Chief Minister gave away the State Media Awards for 2020 and 2021, and the State Photography Awards for 2020. In his address, Mr. Vijayan said there will be no ban on independent, fair, and democratic journalism in the State. All protection will be provided to ensure media freedom. Journalism faced many threats at the national level. Attacks and curbs on democratic journalism were seen in many places. Even rights of citizens were denied. This was the agenda of a particular type of politics. The State’s politics was about fully opposing that kind of politics, he said.
Awards were given in several categories such as general reporting, development reporting, news photography, TV news reporting, interviews, news reading, TV news cameraman, and so on.
