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Indian journalist Ravish Kumar was awarded this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize. He is among five individuals who were declared winners of the award.
Kumar, 44, who is NDTV India’s senior executive editor is one of India’s most influential TV journalists, the award citation said.
“In electing Ravish Kumar to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his unfaltering commitment to a professional, ethical journalism of the highest standards; his moral courage in standing up for truth, integrity, and independence; and his principled belief that it is in giving full and respectful voice to the voiceless, in speaking truth bravely yet soberly to power, that journalism fulfills its noblest aims to advance democracy,” says the citation by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation.
Kumar’s “Prime Time” programme “deals with real-life, under-reported problems of ordinary people”, it added.
“If you have become the voice of the people, you are a journalist,” the citation added.
The four other winners of the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award are Ko Swe Win from Myanmar, Angkhana Neelapaijit from Thailand, Raymundo Pujante Cayabyab from Philippines and Kim Jong-Ki from South Korea.
The citation describes Ravish Kumar as a sober, incisive and well-informed anchor who has been most vocal on insisting that the professional values of sober, balanced, fact-based reporting be upheld in practice.
