The Prem Bhatia Memorial Award for the Best Political Reporting-2015 was awarded to Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic and Strategic Affairs Editor with The Hindu, at a ceremony on Tuesday.
Ms. Haidar was awarded for her 21-year-long career reporting on and analysing the bewildering variety of conflicts and surges around the world. Reversing worldwide trends, she switched from reporting on television to writing in print. Ms. Haidar has reported on conflicts in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Tibet. In her endeavour to report from the heart of conflict zones, she was injured while reporting from Kashmir in 2000 when a car, booby-trapped with a gas cylinder packed with explosives in its boot, exploded.
Priyanka Kakodkar, Editor, Special Projects, Times of India , was also awarded for excellence in environmental and development reporting for her series of reports on Maharashtra’s agrarian crisis and distressed farmers.
The prestigious award, instituted by the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, carries a cash prize of Rs. 2,00,000 and a citation. Prem Bhatia, former Chief Editor of The Tribune, was one of India’s eminent and influential journalists, whose career spanned six decades.
