43 journalists awarded for Excellence and Media Ethics

KARACHI: Pakistan’s most prestigious and sought-after journalism recognition, the AGAHI Awards, recognizes 43 journalists for media excellence and ethics. The AGAHI Awards in its Eighth year received thousands of submissions in more than 40 categories from across the country, says a Press release.
A jury of national and international experts, development specialists, academicians, and media professionals evaluated the submissions made by journalists from print, television, radio, and the online media.
The AGAHI Awards are the annual event in Pakistan to benchmark journalism excellence in Pakistan, recognizing courage and commitment showcasing outstanding contributions of journalists from across the country. Over the years, the winners have produced work, often in the face of political and economic pressures sustaining public trust in the media impacting the lives of people all over the country.
The AGAHI Awards aim at encouraging fact-based, data-driven news reporting and investigative journalism in Pakistan. The AGAHI Awards celebrate content centric to human interest and impact driven journalism in the country.
Leading opinion-makers, field reporters, senior journalists, policymakers, ambassadors, diplomats, public policy experts, academicians, leading professionals from the media industry and representatives from think tanks attended the award ceremony.
Puruesh Chaudhary, President AGAHI and the co-founder of the AGAHI Awards in her keynote address said, “the AGAHI Awards is a commitment to promote ethical journalistic practices for safeguarding public interest. The Awards encourage journalists to use the AGAHI Awards evaluation criteria, to gauge their content to be unbiased, balanced, and accountable. This year we have seen the dramatic rise on the use of technology in education, health, information communications; however, we need to equally reflect on the importance of human expression and media freedom, both fundamentally critical to our collective evolution.
Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer, Mishal Pakistan and co-founder, AGAHI Awards, shared his vision for creating the awards and said “the media in Pakistan is transitioning from passive consumption to an interactive model, this transition is not only confronting media sustainability but also creativity and skillset challenges as well. This change is also exposing media to be exploited by both the state and non-state actors for information laundering. We must collectively ensure the journalists and content creators have freedom and independence to work in an environment that supports fairness, truth and accountability in Pakistan.”
Speaking on the occasion, Moonis Abdullah Alvi, Chief Executive Officer, K-Electric, said, “Journalists are information guardians. It is because of their efforts that people can learn about the world around them. I remember reading news stories as a young executive and imagining the events unfolding in my own mind as I read on. That is the power of journalism. To inform, educate and empower the mind. It is an honor for KE to be part of the Agahi Awards. We look forward to supporting and recognizing the efforts of Pakistan’s journalistic community even more in the future.”