Speaking at the annual RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism, instituted by the Mumbai Press Club, former Supreme Court Justice Srikrishna said that democracy suffers if independence of judges and journalists falters.
The legal luminary remarked that the press as the fourth estate in democracy and journalism, a profession where honesty is really the best policy.
Justice BN Srikrishna said ” A journalist who loses his independence is as bad as a judge who has lost his independence.” He stressed in his speech that two professions that have to be necessarily independent are a judge and a journalist.
If the three pillars of democracy such as judiciary, legislature and executive cosy up, it is the duty of the fourth estate – journalism- to take them to the task, Justice Srikumar said.
The former Supreme Court Justice B N Srikrishna is best known for heading the Srikrishna Commission that investigated the Mumbai riots of 1992-’93.
Om Gaur, the National Editor of Dainik Bhaskar was conferred this year’s RedInk awards for excellence, the Press Club’s ‘Journalist of the Year’ award for 2021 for the newspaper’s coverage of deaths due to Covid-19 in Uttar Pradesh in 2021.
The RedInk Award for lifetime achievement was conferred to journalist TJS George.
