Journalist of the Year 2020: Tribute to Journalist Danish Siddiqui's Bravery!

The tribute was received by Siddiqui's wife Frederike Siddiqui.

Mumbai: A tribute has been given by Mumbai Press Club for the bravery of photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, who died during an assignment in Afghanistan, has been posthumously awarded as the 'Journalist of the Year' for 2020.

A virtual event, comprising the gracious presence of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana yesterday, presented the annual 'RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism', instituted by the Mumbai Press Club.

The CJI Ramana presented the prestigious award to Siddiqui "for his spectrum of investigative and impactful news photography".

The tribute was received by Danish Siddiqui's wife Frederike Siddiqui.

During the virtual event, the Chief Justice of India Mr Ramana expressed his words on the bravery and talent of the journalist, and said, "He was a man with a magical eye and was rightly regarded as one of the foremost photojournalists of this era. If a picture can tell a thousand words, his photos were novels."

Danish Siddiqui was an Indian photojournalist based in Delhi, who used to lead the national Reuters multimedia team. He received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. In 2021, he was killed while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban forces near a border crossing with Pakistan.

Senior journalist Prem Shankar Jha, 83, was bestowed with the lifetime achievement award "for his long and distinguished career of incisive and analytical writing".

"His reputation for hard work, the highest ethical standards, and intellectual rigour are unparalleled in the field," Chief Justice Ramana said while congratulating Mr Jha.

The Mumbai Press Club instituted The RedInk Awards a decade ago to recognise good investigative and feature writing and raise the bar of journalism in the country.

Various other journalists were awarded in 12 categories as part of the 10th edition of the award event.