Vice President gives outstanding media awards

New Delhi, Jul 11: Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Friday awarded Sikander Parikh of Rajasthan Patrika and Arun Sridhar of Malayala Manorama with the Udayan Smriti Patrakarita Samman 2007 by at a function here.

While Parikh, the Patrika's Raipur correspondent received the award for print journalism, Sridhar based in Kerala was the given the honour for photo journalism. Addressing the function, Ansari said that today the Indian media was facing a crisis of content. He said the phenomenon of convergence between news media, entertainment and telecom has meant that the demarcation between professional journalistic output, public relations, advertising and entertainment was fast blurring.

He stressed that in a democracy vibrant journalism could act as a watchdog. It could monitor the exercise of power in the State and stand for the rights and freedoms of citizens.

ANI