Journalism Awards for Excellence 2016 | Sunday Observer

Journalism Awards for Excellence 2016

30 July, 2017
Isuri Kaviratne receiving her award from Ranjith Wijewardene
Isuri Kaviratne receiving her award from Ranjith Wijewardene

Sunday Observer’s Isuri Kaviratne clinched the top award for the Feature Writer of the Year, at the 2017 Journalism Awards for Excellence, organized by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka (TEGOSL) and the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI).

The awards were presented for the 18th consecutive year on July 25 at the Mount Lavinia Hotel.

Two other awards were won by Roel Raymond For the Best Website of the Daily News and Tharaka Wickremasekera of the Silumina.

Described as the Sri Lankan equivalent of the Pulitzer, the Excellence in Journalism Awards is the most prestigious annual program for journalists, which recognizes outstanding work and rewards those deserving merit.

It also honoured those who served the journalistic profession for over 45 years with Lifetime Achievement Awards. The five recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2016:

Widana Gamage Gunerathne

Lakshman Jayawardena

S. A. C. M. Kuwaldeen

Palavasam Panneer Selvam

Gaston de Rosayro

The Awards Program for Journalism was started in 1999 by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka following the “Colombo Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility.”

The program aims at recognizing professionalism in 14 categories of Sri Lanka’s print media and reward excellence over a particular year.

In 2004, the Sri Lanka Press Institute was inaugurated and thereon the Awards Night jointly organized by TEGOSL and the SLPI. The goal of the Awards Ceremony has been to shape the future of journalism in the country by improving the skills needed for excellence, recognizing and rewarding achievements and high standards, as well as focusing on professional ethics.

Pix: Shan Rambukwella 

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