India’s Barkha in short list of five Global TV Greats of 2011

| by B.Raman

(October 18, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The 39-year-old Barkha Dutt, the versatile TV journalist of India who is the Group Editor of NDTV, a national 24-hour news channel, has been short-listed along with four other TV greats, for consideration for selection as the International TV Personality of the Year 2011 by a panel of independent judges.

Barkha is a versatile TV professional, who has made a name for her excellence in field reporting, interviews and talk shows.

The prestigious and highly coveted Award as the International TV Personality of the Year is given every year, along with awards in 15 other professional categories, by the London-based Association of International Broadcasting (AIB), which is the industry association for TV and radio globally. It was established in 1993.Its annual awards for media (TV and radio) excellence were instituted seven years ago. The awards for 2011 will be announced at a function in London on November 9.

The nominations for the awards in the 16 categories are submitted by different TV and radio companies all over the world. These are scrutinised by different panels of judges and short lists prepared for different categories for a final scrutiny by independent judges, who will decide the winners.

The most coveted of the awards in the 16 categories is that of the International TV Personality of the Year. The nominees for the short list are chosen on the basis of their contribution to TV Excellence during the year. The fact that out of dozens of nominations received, Barkha has been included in the short list of five is a recognition of her contribution to TV Excellence during the year.

Barkha is a versatile TV professional, who has made a name for her excellence in field reporting, interviews and talk shows. During the year 2011, she distinguished herself by her outstanding and courageous reporting, inter alia, from Egypt and Libya and by her coverage of the sequel to the killing of Osama bin Laden by the US Navy Seals in Pakistan on May 2. Her weekly talk show titled We The People , which is widely viewed in South Asia, completed 10 years in 2011. She also hosts a four-times-a- week current affairs talk show titled “The Buck Stops Here”.

She also produced some excellent documentaries of which two have been chosen by the preliminary team of judges of the AIB for consideration in other categories. These are “The Women of Tahrir Square” and the “Battle For Libya”.

Her NDTV channel, with which she has been associated since its inception, has had the honour of being a channel from India short-listed in the largest number of categories relating to Egypt, Libya, the Tsunami in Japan and Sports.

Two other Indian channels have also received the honour of being short-listed in two categories---Star News For Creative Marketing and the INX News Pvt Ltd, India – India Endangered—for Current Affairs Documentary (Domestic).

The other four nominess, along with Barkha, in the short list of International TV Personality of the Year are Sir David Attenborough of the British Sky Broadcasting, Ms. Mishal Hussain of BBC World News, Tim Sebastian, formerly of BBC World News who now works for a Qatar channel, and Ross Kemp of the British Sky Broadcasting.

Barkha has a large circle of admirers and well-wishers in the Indian sub-continent and abroad. They will be watching with bated breath as the final winners are announced at London on November 9.

Whatever be the final result, the fact that Barkha has made her way into the short list of five TV Greats of 2011 is a great honour to her, her channel and India.

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter : @SORBONNE75 )