20th edition of Journalism Awards night on Tuesday

The 20th edition of the Journalism Awards for Excellence programme will culminate with the annual ‘Awards Night’ on Tuesday, December 10, at the Empire Ballroom of the Mount Lavinia Hotel, the host hotel for the gala event.

This year there were 313 applications for 17 categories from 37 daily and weekly newspapers in the three language streams – Sinhala, Tamil and English. Applications were also received from online websites of newspapers for the ‘Best Designed News We b s i t e, said Sukumar Rockwood, Convener of Jour nalism Awards for Excellence 2018.

The awards ceremony that was begun in 1999 by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka and is now organised by The Editors’ Guild in partnership with the Sri Lanka Press Institute, is the biggest media awards programme in the country.

For the first time this year an award will be presented for ‘ Using Right To Information’ to write news or feature stories in all three languages.

The aim of the awards night is to recognize professionalism in the print media of Sri Lanka and reward excellence over a particular year. It also honours those who have served the profession for more than 40 years with Lifetime Achievement Awards, Mr. Rockwood said.

The five recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2018 are: Dudley Jansz, Tilakaratne Kuruvita Bandara, A. L. K. Perera, K. M. L. B.

Senaratne and Gopalapillai Thiruketharanathan.

The Editors’ Guild also presents two special awards by its own nomination at the event; the D. R. Wijewardene Award for Recognition by Peers and the Public and the Sepala Gunasena Award for Defending Press Freedom in Sri Lanka.

The sponsors for the event are: Platinum – Keells Holdings, Gold – Dialog Axiata, Silver – DFCC, SLIC, LOLC, BoC, NSB, SriLankan Airlines and Bronze – SLPA.