Television anchor and journalist Ravish Kumar of NDTV India is one of the five winners of the 61st Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2019 announced yesterday, and hundreds of thousands of his followers all over the country feel vindicated and thrilled at this acknowledgement of the importance of his work.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s premier prize and highest honor, a kind of Nobel Prize of Asia, “celebrates greatness of spirit and transformative leadership” in the region. Ravish Kumar’s award has been given “for harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless” and his programs deal with real life and the underreported problems of ordinary people.
Ravish Kumar has stuck to the classic form of journalism that never forgets it is speaking truth to power on behalf of the people in the face of great odds and in the era of sensationalism, hyberbole, fake news and outright lies, all in pursuit of TRPs. He has been threatened with assault, trolled and subjected to vilification, his private life under public scrutiny and his peace of mind shattered, only because he has adhered to the highest standards of journalism.
Ravish Kumar is a champion of the people and he has become one without screaming, yelling, hectoring and threatening on his channel. His voice is distinctive for its even, measured tones, in which he delivers the hardest strikes against the establishment, always accompanied by meticulously-researched facts and figures.
Last year, Ravish Kumar was at St. Pauls Institute of Communication Education, to participate in a panel discussion with other authors on their recent books. His was A City happens in Love, translated from the original Hindi Ishq Mein Shahar Hona, and he drew an audience that packed Alberione Hall
Later, he submitted graciously to a television interview with a former student and poised happily for photographs, a journalist surrounded by future journalists.
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