(Vatican Radio) The Asian Catholic news agency UCAN reports that the editor-in-chief
of the 25 year-old weekly Indian Currents newspaper, Fr. Jacob Kani, OFM Cap., has
received the Honesty Award 2013 for Journalism. The prize was given at Indore in
Madhya Pradesh on Dec 30, 2013, in recognition of “the honest, fearless and courageous
stand,” Fr. Kani has taken as a journalist and editor of the weekly over the years.
The Honesty Awards are given by the Goa, India-based Honesty Foundation, founded
by Bernardo De Sousa in order to: “[Recognize and award] every act of honesty in all
walks of life.” The Foundation had been awarding honest students in the past years.
It introduced the award for honest journalism for the first time in 2013.
Also
in 2013, the Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA) honoured Fr. Kani’s publication,
Indian Currents, for fearless journalism.
Below, please find the full text
of the UCAN press release:
Fr. Jacob Kani, editor-in-chief of Indian Currents
weekly, was conferred the ‘Honesty Award 2013 for Journalism’ at Indore in Madhya
Pradesh on Dec 30, 2013. According to a press statement, the award has been given
to him in recognition of his honest, fearless and courageous stand taken as a journalist
and editor of the weekly over the years. Honesty Awards are established by the Honesty
Foundation, Goa that is founded by Bernardo De Sousa with the intention of “recognizing
and awarding every act of honesty in all walks of life.” The Foundation had been
awarding honest students in the past years. It introduced the award for honest journalism
for the first time in 2013.
The priest received a citation and cash prize
of 30,001 rupees during the annual “Knit India” program organized by the Universal
Solidarity Movement (USM) founded by Fr. Varghese Alengaden. The statement said that
the priest through the publication has been waging a relentless battle against corruption,
religious fundamentalism and growing communalism in the country.
Whenever
the country faced the onslaught of religious fundamentalism and communal tensions,
Indian Currents came out courageously and strongly against such forces and ideologies,
while adhering to the values of truth, justice and peace. More specifically, Indian
Currents was in the forefront to expose those behind the violence in Kandhamal, it
added. In September 2012, Fr. Kani received the Bennet Memorial Award for Excellence
in Journalism in New Delhi.
The Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA)
honored Indian Currents in December 2013 for “fearless journalism” as the weekly completed
25 years of publication.