‘Last bastion of bold investigative journalism in India’: Caravan wins 2023 Shorenstein award

The Caravan magazine has been awarded the 2023 Shorenstein Journalism Award for its “coverage that champions accountability and media independence in the face of India's democratic backsliding”, the Stanford University’s Walter H Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center has announced.

The selection committee noted that the Caravan and its executive editor Hartosh Singh Bal have led the “last bastion of bold investigative journalism in India under extreme duress”. The APARC will present Bal with the Shorenstein award at a ceremony at Stanford University in the autumn quarter.

This announcement came on the same day the magazine’s Neel Madhav and Alishan Jafri won the KP Naryana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism, announced by the Asian College of Journalism, for their story ‘Clicks and Bait: How a constellation of far-right Hindi YouTubers determine what you see on your TV’. 

There were two other categories under the ACJ awards. For investigative journalism, Scroll’s Arunab Saikia was honoured for his report titled ‘Adani power station gets coal from Hasdeo Arand mine allocated to Rajasthan’. The Ashish Yechury Memorial Award for photojournalism was conferred on Tanmoy Bhaduri for his photo series ‘Children of India’s burning coalfields dream of a fire-free future’, published in Context.

Meanwhile, lauding the Caravan and its editors and reporters, the APARC said the magazine has uncovered “ground-breaking stories with persistence and courage”, on issues such as persecution of religious minorities, farmer suicides, labour rights, and the “increasing threats to democratic institutions”. It also mentioned that since the BJP came into power at the centre under Narendra Modi, the Caravan “has garnered recognition for its political investigations and daring commentary”.

“Despite intimidation and harassment from the government, the Caravan continues to document the erosion of democracy and human rights in India,” said Gi-Wook Shin, Stanford sociologist and APARC director. “The magazine’s team of intrepid editors and reporters demonstrates the highest level of journalistic integrity and excellence. It is our honour to recognise it with the 2023 Shorenstein Journalism Award.”

On Wednesday, India was ranked 161 out of 180 countries in the 2023 edition of the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders. Marking a slip of 11 ranks from last year, the country is now several spots behind Pakistan and Afghanistan, which have improved their rankings this year to be at positions 150 and 152, respectively.

“In this environment, where media organisations are under constant pressure to toe the government line and critical reporting is often suppressed, the Caravan has kept its commitment to editorial independence. Facing violence, sedition charges, and imprisonment, the magazine has continued to produce investigations exposing Hindu extremist terrorism, political assassinations, gender and caste inequality, and ethnic violence against the Muslim minority in the country,” said APARC, in the announcement published on Stanford University’s official website.

The APARC has honoured 22 journalists with Shorenstein award since 2002, including Emily Feng, NPR’s Beijing correspondent; Swe Win, editor-in-chief of Burmese media organisation Myanmar Now; Tom Wright, co-author of Billion Dollar Whale; and Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, executive editor of Philippines-based news house Rappler.