Jacob Mathew chief guest at Journalism Awards 2010

President of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Jacob Mathew will be the chief guest at next Tuesday’s (July 26, 2011) Awards Night jointly organised by The Editors Guild of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Press Institute at the Mount Lavinia Hotel, the host hotel for the event.

Mr. Mathew heads the world’s single largest media association.

This will be the 12th edition of the annual Journalism Awards for Excellence programme. The programme recognises professionalism in journalism and rewards those who have excelled during a year. It also awards Lifetime Achievement Gold Medals to those who have served the profession for nearly five decades and provides scholarships for young award winners, some of them in association with the Lakshman Kadirgamar Foundation and MASCOM, the School of Journalism of India’s largest circulating newspaper group, Malayala Manorama.

A record number of 250 entries were received this year for the 2010 Awards from journalists working for Sri Lankan newspapers for the several awards on offer showing the growing popularity of the programme which began with the 1998 Awards.

Prof. Tissa Kariyawasam, Former Head of the Department of Mass Communications at the Kelaniya University continues to head an independent and autonomous Judging Panel comprising of retired and working journalists and media academics.

The main sponsors of Awards 2010 are Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel with SriLankan Airlines, Carson Cumberbatch, Free Lanka Granite and Print Care as co-sponsors.