Pune Institute Cancels Award for Kashmiri Journalist, Jury Refuses to Attend Event in Protest
The Wire Staff | 18 October 2023
Safina Nabi
New Delhi: Kashmiri journalist Safina Nabi, who was selected for a media award instituted by the journalism school run by the Pune-based Maharashtra Institute of Technology-World Peace University (MIT-WPU), got a rude shock as her award was cancelled on the eve of the award presentation ceremony, which was held in the institute’s premises today. The award was cancelled by the university’s management in the face of right-wing political pressure, The Wire has learned. The institute authorities were tightlipped about the incident.
Nabi’s report, ‘The half widows of Kashmir’, appearing in Scroll, had been chosen the winner in the category of ‘journalism that promoted empathy, understanding and inclusivity in society’. It brought out the longstanding plight of the ‘half widows’ of Kashmir who continue to be denied their property rights decades after the disappearance of their husbands. The reporting for the story was aided by the Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting.