They are the fearless individuals who have captured and reported a true picture of our society and now its time to honour them and provide a national platform of empowerment to recognise ordinary citizens who through their extraordinary efforts have proved themselves to be the champions of our civil society. IBN18 Network presents the 2nd edition of Citizen Journalist Awards to honour the indomitable Citizen Journalists (CJ) who have been highlighting the wrongs of society and fighting against tremendous odds, bureaucratic red tape and even the lethargy of fellow citizens to bring about a positive change in our society. The Citizen Journalist Awards will be given out in six different categories at a ceremony to be held in New Delhi on Feb 15th 2010 to those who have done extraordinary reporting to bring forth the truth.
The Citizen Journalist Awards will be given away in the following categories:
- Fight Back CJ – The category where CJs can fight for their rights or against any wrong they see around them.
- Save Your City – The category where the CJs highlight their city-centric problems
- Be the Change CJ - This category sees participation from volunteers who see a problem or experience it first hand
- CJ VIDEO - The category which highlights the alert CJs, who have a mobile camera at their disposal and click videos about issues they feel strongly about.
- CJ PHOTO - The category where CJs who have reported a story using a picture to say it all
- Special CJ – A special award category for the CJs who have had made a significant contribution to the CJ movement
IBN18 Network will also profile the nominees for Citizen Journalist Awards by various award categories in nominee special episodes on
CNN-IBN - Feb 6th & Feb 13th @ 9:30 PM
IBN7 - Feb 7th & Feb 14th @ 10:00 PM &
IBN-Lokmat - Feb 7th & Feb 14th @ 9.30 PM
The Citizen Journalist Awards follow a 2-tier selection process that involves: The IBN18 Editorial Board that generates a list of nominees across the six categories & The Jury comprising of Eminent Citizens to select the final Citizen Journalist Awards winners.
The Jury for “Citizen Journalist Awards” consists of:
- Dr Kiran Bedi: Retired IPS officer, Magsaysay Award winner for Govt service
- Ranjana Kumari: Prominent activist
- Aniruddha Bahal: India's best known investigative journalist
- Rajendra Yadav: Eminent Hindi fiction writers and one of the pioneers of Nayi Kahani, Hindi literary movement
- Neelam Katara: Won national fame for her fight against the alleged killers of her son
- Arvind Kejriwal: Magsaysay Award Winner for Emergent Leadership in 2006, for activating India's Right to Information movement
Instituted in the year 2008, IBN18 Network’s ‘Citizen Journalist’ is a path breaking initiative that has become the platform of empowerment for the citizens of India, that lauds the democratization of news and is built on the principles of inclusive journalism. This platform aims to create awareness about the power that a normal citizen of the country really has to bring forth the truth. CJ is now a 52-week an year phenomenon on IBN7 & IBN-Lokmat celebrating the efforts of Citizen Journalists across the country. The Citizen Journalist Show is also a dedicated programme on CNN-IBN that runs as short episodic series through the year. With the attributes of Empowerment & Co-creation, CJ is second only to the Right to Information Acts as an empowering tool for the citizens of India. In fact the Limca Book of Records has honored CNN-IBN for empowering the citizens to participate in the news gathering process.
Speaking about the initiative, Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 Network, said, “The principle of inclusive journalism lies at the heart of everything we do. The Citizen Journalist Awards takes citizen involvement to the next level by providing the citizenry an empowering platform so they can articulate the issues that are closest to their hearts and become involved in the news creating process. With these awards we salute our courageous countrymen who have raised their voice against injustice and hope that they serve as a shining example to others in the coming years as well. Citizen Journalist Awards will reward the best citizen journalists who have made an impact with their effort to find truth and we are sure that this will encourage more participation from our viewers.”
Speaking about the award, Ashutosh, Managing Editor, IBN7, said, “Citizen Journalist Awards is one of the best examples of citizen empowerment which encourages the citizens not be a silent spectator to the anomalies in the system but to take a stand and voice their concerns by becoming a Citizen Journalist. As we recognise the efforts of some of our outstanding Citizen Journalists, we hope to inspire many more to report from ground zero on issues which may be close to their heart.”
Speaking about the award, Nikhil Wagle, Editor, IBN-Lokmat said “This initiative has taken off really well with the Marathi viewers and empowers them as citizens of India to take up causes and to report things of national importance that would help improving the society at large. We hope with this initiative many more individuals will come forward and help make a better society.”
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