The Caravan was chosen for the 2021 Louis M Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, after those in the Nieman Foundation for Journalism’s class of 2021 at Harvard University picked the independent journalism magazine of culture and politics in India for the honour.
According to the Nieman wesbite, The Caravan was recognised for ‘its unique and uncompromising coverage of the erosion of human rights, social justice, and democracy in India’.
The website also highlights that this honour comes amid extraordinary and alarming circumstances. The Caravan’s recent coverage of nationwide farmers’ protests drew the attention of the BJP government, when the administrative authorities attempted to shut down the magazine’s social media accounts.
The Caravan’s twitter account was withheld for nearly six hours on 1 February ‘in response to a legal demand’.
The award also comes following the arrest of Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist who contributed to the magazine. Punia was on an assignment to cover the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi’s Singhu border when he was forcibly picked up by a group of policemen, who reasoned that he ‘misbehaved’ with the authorities.
“An amazing news when free, bold journalism is targeted. Thank you Niemen, Thank you Harvard,” the executive editor of The Caravan, Vinod Jose, wrote on Twitter in response to the honour.
Jose was also among the journalists who was booked for sedition by Noida Police on 28 January. The FIR had stated that they shared misinformed news and ‘instigated violence’ on Republic day, when the farmers’ tractor rally descended into chaos.
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