V.S. Suryanarayana, who retired as Director (News) of Doordarshan was awarded the State-level R.H. Kulkarni Award in Journalism instituted by R.H. Kulkarni Memorial Trust. The award carried Rs. 5,000 in cash and a public felicitation. Trust chairman S.M. Kulkarni presided over the function.
Shri.Suryanarayana has called upon journalists to exercise restraint while reporting and advised them against compromising professional ethics. He added that the job of a journalist has not only become challenging, demanding a very high degree of professional and social responsibility, but also one of the most hazardous.
He said that only a journalist in the field knows about his professional hazards yet he was expected to file news stories in the shortest possible word-length and within a given deadline, to deliver fresh news to readers or those listening to the radio and watching TV.
Atul Kumar Tiwari, Resident Commissioner of Karnataka at New Delhi, who presented the award, said that radio journalism had a bright future in the days to come with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself realising its importance to reach out to the communities living in the remotest areas of the country through his “Man Ki Baat” programme.
It is noteworthy here that it was late R.H. Kulkarni who had suggested him when he was Deputy Commissioner of Belagavi to develop the “Congress Well”, the venue of the historical Congress session presided over by Mahatma Gandhi in 1924, in the city. Subsequently, Mr. Tiwari, in consultation with freedom fighters and social workers, conceptualised and developed it into a beautiful memorial park which is now known as the “Veer Soudha”.
