Very Few Willing To Speak Truth To Power: Journalist Nidhi Razdan At Press Awards

NDTV Journalist Nidhi Razdan's show picked the International Press Institute Award-India for its “expose of the conspiracy to scuttle” the Kathua rape and murder case probe. This expose of the hypocrisy in the case was termed as "excellence of Journalism" by the India chapter of the Vienna-based press institute. Nidhi's speech receiving the award wet viral for its brutally honest perspective on today's media.

In her power-packed speech at the award ceremony, Razdan spoke about the crisis that Indian Media is facing today. "Those of us who do our jobs as journalists are labelled anti-nationals. The sad truth is that very few are willing to speak truth to power, and you have - with some exceptions- a media that fawns over the establishment, unwilling to ask tough questions instead preferring to merely reproduce government handouts and pass that off as news," she said.

"The rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl wasn't just another crime story. This was a horrific act against a child, which was followed by some of the ugliest communal polarisations we have seen."

We Need Media That Seeks Answers And Justice

Razdan also spoke about how the credibility of Indian Media is at stake only because of some news channels promote divisive, communal and hate-filled content. "Every night they create imaginary enemies, put targets on people's backs and demonise minorities, which is why it is even more important to support those who are pushing back against this wall of hate. More than ever, we need a media that seeks answers, seeks justice and tries to heal divides instead of creating them. At the risk of repeating myself, I am proud that this is what NDTV stands for and over the last few months. We have been overwhelmed with the support and love from folks who say we need you to survive, we need NDTV," she said.

Kathua Rape Case Witnessed The Ugliest Communal Polarisation

"The rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl wasn't just another crime story. This was a horrific act against a child, which was followed by some of the ugliest communal polarisations we have seen. This horror was compounded by the shock of ministers in the state government attending rallies in support of the accused. We at NDTV stayed with the story from beginning to end, and last year, there was some justice as the key accused were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison," she added in her speech.

She thanked her colleagues Nazir Masoodi and Zaffar Iqbal, who, she said, "doggedly pursued every lead on this story, investigated every angle and ensured that the story of the little girl was heard around the country."

Also Read: Why Are We Seeing So Much Brutality Against Children?

Key Takeaways:

• Well known Journalist of private news media channel NDTV, Nidhi Razdan won the International Press Institute Award- India for "expose of the conspiracy to scuttle" in the Kathua Rape Case and Murder Probe. 
• The India chapter of the International Press Institute Awards was started in 2003 and was first won by the Indian Express for its coverage of the aftermath of the Gujarat Riots.
• Razdan has also won the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism for reporting from Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern India and the Jammu and Kashmir State government has also awarded her for excellence in journalism

Also Read: Preventing Rape: It's Time We Moved From Outrage To Action