Tibetan photojournalist awarded at the most prestigious annual event in the Indian media calendar
DHARAMSALA, Jan 7: A Tibetan photojournalist has bagged the photojournalism award at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards.
Tashi Tobgyal, a photojournalist at an Indian news media publishing company, The Indian Express was awarded the photojournalism 2017 award at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards; the most prestigious annual event in the Indian media calendar by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on fridaday in the national capital.
“#RNG award for Photojournalism this time. Blessed to be awarded and recognised yet again!!!” Tashi said in a Facebook post celebrating his feat.
Over the years, the winners have produced work — often in the face of political and economic pressures — that generates and sustains public trust in the media and impacts the lives of people, The Indian Express reported.
Tashi won the award for his photograph of a 21-year-old manual scavenger Jhony at work in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh in India which the award citation described as a powerful image documenting the life and death of those who keep our cities clean – manual scavengers and sewage workers.
To recognise the courage and the commitment and showcase the outstanding contributions of journalists from across the country, Indian Express Group instituted the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2005 as part of the centenary year celebrations of its founder, Ramnath Goenka.
Tashi was among the 29 journalists awarded for outstanding work done in 2017. The awards were in 18 categories across print, broadcast and digital mediums.
Winning the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards is a no mean feat, however, Tashi has been in the profession for the past twelve years and his photo feature category for his 12-day coverage of the 2014 Kashmir floods also on won him the ‘national award for excellence in journalism’ in 2015.
Tashi Tobgyal was born to Tibetan refugee family in Darjeeling and studied at the St. Joseph North Point School. After completing his school, he joined the Aligarh Muslim University and later starting his profession as a photographer.