New Delhi: The Wire‘s senior editor Arfa Khanum Sherwani and freelance journalist Rohini Mohan have jointly won the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediaperson, 2019.
The award is given annually to an outstanding woman mediaperson.
It was first given in 1982 and since then has named a woman journalist who has made a difference through her work. The awardees have been representatives of English, Hindi and vernacular media, from a cross-section of backgrounds.
Among the 54 recipients of the award till date are Neerja Chowdhury, Tavleen Singh, Priyanka Dubey, Barkha Dutt, Supriya Sharma and The Wire‘s public editor Pamela Philipose. The criteria for selection are “excellence, analytical skill, social concern, insights, style, innovation, courage and compassion.”
Sherwani hosts two video shows on The Wire – ‘Arfa ka India’ and ‘Hum Bhi Bharat’. She’s been subjected to death and rape threats on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Recently, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement urging BJP leaders to stop encouraging online vitriol directed at her. She has won several awards in the past, including the RedInk Award for TV journalism.
Mohan too has won several awards, and has published two books based on her journalistic work on Sri Lanka’s civil war. She has won the The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and Tata Literature Live! First Book Award (Nonfiction). She has written for The Wire several times.