Project SIREN award—2023

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Project SIREN award for Journalists 2023.

Brendan Dabhi, senior correspondent at Ahmedabad Mirror, has been awarded the Project SIREN award 2023 for his article titled Not Just Barriers, Building ‘Bridges’ Can Stop Suicides.

brendhan dabhi

About the award

Launched on 10th September 2020, World Suicide Prevention Day, Project SIREN completes three years of assessing media reports on suicide in September 2023. Project SIREN is committed to advocate for better reporting practices on suicide and sees journalists and media persons as crucial allies to support suicide prevention activities. Responsible and sensitive reporting on suicides can help debunk the various myths on suicides, draw attention to the myriad of personal, social and systemic factors that can lead to an individual taking their lives and highlight that suicides are indeed preventable. 

The Keshav Desiraju India Mental Health Observatory is pleased to announce the third year of the Project SIREN award for the most sensitive and responsible report on suicide (based on submissions).

Submission Criteria

The submission criteria are: 

  • Any report or story that focuses on one or several aspects of suicide and suicide prevention (news articles, general commentary, op-eds) 
  • Published in English in either a newspaper or an online publication 
  • Published between July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023  

Please note mental health experts are not eligible for this award. 

All articles will be evaluated based on their adherence to WHO guidelines for responsible reporting on suicide, sensitivity to the subject of the report (person, population or issue at-large) and in the language used, balanced reportage and the accuracy/veracity of the article.  

Submissions are now closed.

 

 

Meet the Panel

award panel

Tanmoy Goswami

Tanmoy Goswami is a user-survivor and founding editor of Sanity, an independent mental health storytelling platform, based out of New Delhi. He is a 2022-23 fellow of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. As part of his lived experience advocacy, Tanmoy has co-facilitated suicide reporting workshops for journalists with CMHLP. Previously, Tanmoy headed the editorial desk at Fortune India magazine, where he won the IE Business School Prize for Economic Journalism in Asia, and was associate editor of The Economic Times Prime. Tanmoy is an alumnus of the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism, CUNY, and St Stephen’s College. He was declared a Top Voice in Social Impact by LinkedIn in 2022.

award panel

A.J. Philip

A.J. Philip has held senior editorial positions at the Hindustan Times, the Indian Express and The Tribune. He was the first Director of Pratichi (India) Trust set up by Prof Amartya Sen. He was, until recently, Secretary and Chief Executive of Deepalaya, one of India’s largest NGOs. He writes regularly for the Indian Currents and the Free Press Journal. Apart from writing, he is the Patron of Deepalaya Foundation Inc., based in Houston, Texas, USA.

award panel

Dr. Jaya Shreedhar

Dr. Jaya Shreedhar is a medical doctor and an award-winning health journalist, whose area of interest is public health journalism with a focus on human rights and health governance. Dr. Shreedhar is also an Adjunct Professor, Health Journalism at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, India. Formerly a Special Health Correspondent for Frontline Magazine at The Hindu, she is Senior Health Media Advisor at Internews and a WHO consultant.