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Honoured by the Guild

The Additional Chief Sub Editor of The Sunday Times, Ishika Amerasinghe, receives the award for the Best Designed Newspaper from Mr. Binoy Surendra

Journalists downed their pens, editors forgot their deadlines and subs their pages as they gathered last Tuesday at the Mount Lavinia Hotel for the print media event of the year, the Journalism Awards of Excellence 2002.

Organised by the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka for the fifth successive year, the event seeks to recognize excellence within the profession and also to highlight the significant contributions over the years of several veteran journalists.

Amantha Perera of the Sunday Leader won the coveted Mervyn de Silva Journalist of the Year 2002 award for 'an impressive ability to tackle a wide range of subjects and consistently good coverage of varied topics'.

Journalist of the Year Amantha Perera of the Sunday Leader receives his award from Mr. Sam Wijesinha

The Sunday Times had two main awards: The Best Designed Newspaper Award for the third consecutive year and the Upali Wijewardene Award for the Feature Writer of the Year won by Deputy Editor of The Sunday Times Kumudini Hettiarachchi for 'her exhaustive features and human interest reports'.

While the awards were the suspenseful climax of the evening, a thought-provoking documentary by ITN earlier traced the growth of newspapers both in the north and in the south, reflecting the trials and triumphs of the Fourth Estate.

Feature Writer of the Year 2002, Kumudini Hettiarachchi of The Sunday Times receives her award from Mr. Siri Ranasinghe

Light entertainment was provided with colourful interludes by the lissome dancers of the Channa-Upuli Ensemble.

A distinguished gathering of diplomats, friends of the media and journalists from the country's newspapers was present to celebrate the event.

This year's ceremony was jointly sponsored by Upali Newspapers, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon (ANCL), Wijeya Newspapers, Express Newspapers, United Newspapers together with SriLankan Airlines, Ceylon Tobacco Company, National Savings Bank, People's Bank, National Lotteries Board, Triad, Powerhouse and the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka. The Mount Lavinia Hotel was the host-hotel.

Mr. Siri Ranasinghe, the President of the Editors Guild presenting the Upali Wijewardene Feature Writer of the Year, Merit Certificate to Mr. Neil Siriweera of the Irida Lankadeepa

Photographer of the Year Daminda Harsha Perera with his bride-to-be Dilrukshi Prasangika Perera

Mr. D.D. Nesiah, Member of the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka presents the B.A. Siriwardene Columnist of the Year Award for his 'King Barnet' column in the Irida Divaina to Mr. Harith Gunawardena.

Mr. Waruna Karunathilake of the Free Media Movement presenting the Young Reporter of the Year Merit Certificate to Mr. Tissa Ravindra Perera of Lakbima.

Lighting the traditional oil lamp(from left) Mr. Kumar Nadesan, Mr. Amal Jayasinghe,Ms. Sumana Saparama-du and Mr. Sam Wijesinha

Mr. Ranjit Wijewardene, President of the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, Chairman, Wijeya Newspapers and Chairman of the Sri Lanka Press Institute, presenting the D.R. Wijewardene Award for Earning the Appreciation of Peers and the Public, to Ms. Ranee Mohamed of the Sunday Leader.

A section of the distinguished guests

Dr. V.S. Sambandan, special correspondent of the Hindu newspaper, based in Colombo and President of the Foreign Correspondents Association, presenting the Award for Cartoonist of the Year to Mr. Ramachandran of the Thinakkural.

Mr. Edmund Ranasinghe, former Editor of the Divaina and Director of Upali Newspapers presenting the Special Award for good display of a regionally published magazine to the Paathukavalan of Jaffna. The award was accepted by Fr. Ruban Marianpillai

Mr. A. Sivanesaselvan, Editor of the Thinakkural presenting the award for Sports Journalist of the Year to Mr. Vijitha Fernando of the Daily Mirror.

Mr. Kumar Nadesan, Chairman, Express Newspapers presenting a Special Award for environmental reporting to Jagath Kanaheraarchchi of the Sunday Divaina

Mr. Mohanlal Piyadasa, Secretary of the Editors Guild, presenting the Photographer of the Year Merit Certificate to Mr. Lakmal Wasantha for his pictures in the Lakbima

A dance item by the Channa and Upuli troupe.

Pix by Ranjith Perera, J. Weerasekera and Samantha Perera

Mervyn de Silva Award for Journalist of the Year: For displaying an impressive ability to tackle a wide range of subjects and consistently good coverage of varied topics – Amantha Perera of the Sunday Leader.

D. R. Wijewardene Award for earning the appreciation of peers and the public: For her heart-rending features and consistently good coverage in the Sunday Leader of the plight of the destitute and people in dire circumstances, prompting quick responses from the public – Ranee Mohamed.

Upali Wijewardene Award for Feature Writer of the Year: shared between Kumudini Hettiarachchi of The Sunday Times for her exhaustive features and human interest reports and D. Nihal P. Abeysinghe of the Silumina for his feature articles.

Merit Mention under the Upali Wijewardene Award for Feature Writer of the Year Neil Siriweera of the Sunday Lankadeepa.

B.A. Siriwardene Award for Columnist of the Year: For his “King Barnet” column in the Irida Divaina - Harith Gunawardena.

Prof. K. Kailasapathy Award for reporting under special circumstances: For his reports in the Thinakkural – Ratnayam Thayaparan.

Sports Journalist of the Year: For his all round contribution to sports journalism and reports published in the Daily Mirror – Vijitha Fernando.

Cartoonist of the Year: Mr. Ramachandran of the Thinakkural.

Photographer of the Year: For his outstandingly good news and feature photographs published in the Daily Mirror, Lankadeepa and The Sunday Times - Daminda Harsha Perera.

Merit Mention in the Photographer of the Year Category:

a) Eranga Jayawardena for his pictures in the Island, Divaina, Sunday Island and Irida Divaina.

b) Lakmal Wasantha of the Lakbima.

Best Designed Newspaper of the Year:
The Sunday Times

Young Reporters of the Year: For good reportage in the Veerakesari - Sri Gajan. Merit Mention in the Young Reporter of the Year category: shared between Tissa Ravindra Perera and Gaya Kumara Weerasinghe of Lakbima.

Special Awards of the judges:

a) For his environmental reporting: K.A. Jagath Kanaheraarchchi of the Sunday Divaina.
b) For his health related features and reporting: Tilak Navaratne of the Subasetha.
c) For good display of a regionally published magazine: Paathukavalan of Jaffna.

Long and distinguished service gold medal awards

Mr. Dalton de Silva
Mr. Edwin Ariyadasa
Mr. D.F. Kariyakarawana
Mr. Jiffry Yoonus
Ms. Annaluxmy Rajadurai

Awards for Sri Lanka's veteran journalists
Five senior journalists – Edwin Ariyadasa, D.F. Kariyakarawana, Jiffry Yoonus, Annaluxmy Rajadurai and Dalton de Silva – were honoured with Long and Distinguished Service Gold Medal Awards at the Journalism Awards for Excellence ceremony on June 24.

Edwin Ariyadasa, during his long and illustrious career, worked in the Dinamina, Janatha, Silumina, Daily News and Sunday Observer as a writer and sub-editor and finally became the Editor of the Navayugaya

He is now a consultant to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources Management.

D.F. Kariyakarawana was Editor of the Silumina and Janatha newspapers and was instrumental in introducing the Yowun Janatha and Kreeda tabloid newspapers.

He also set up the Sri Lanka Newspaper Society and the Working Journalists Association. He has completed 58 years as a journalist, and continues to contribute to local newspapers.

Renowned political-cartoonist Jiffry Yoonus counts more than 50 years in the profession, having started out at the Thinakaran newspaper in 1952. He worked at the Communist Party organ, Aththa and then the Ravaya newspaper, but has now stopped drawing due to ill-health.

Annaluxmy Rajadurai joined the Virakesari newspaper back in 1962 and has been Editor of Jyothi, a family tabloid and of the weekly Mithran, a sister newspaper of the daily Virakesari.

She is presently in charge of Kalai Kesari and Mangaiyar Kesari, two weekly tabloid supplements of the Virakesari Group.

Dalton de Silva has been a reporter, feature writer, news editor and associate editor at the Daily News and The Island. A veteran journalist for more than 50 years, he was also a foreign correspondent for Agence France Presse (AFP) and Bureau Chief of Reuters.

He is a founder member of the Foreign Correspondents' Association (FCA) of Sri Lanka. During the past 12 years, Mr. de Silva has been lecturing in journalism courses.


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