Project SIREN award—2025
Our mission is to recognize journalists who promote suicide prevention through responsible reporting. We encourage solution-focused coverage on suicide that explores the social, economic, and cultural facets of the issue.
About the award
Launched on 10th September 2020, World Suicide Prevention Day, Project SIREN completes five years of assessing media reports on suicide in September 2025. 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 fifth year of the Project SIREN award for the most sensitive and responsible report on suicide (based on submissions).
Submission criteria:
We invite submissions from individual journalists that have reported or written on suicide in the last year. The submission criteria are below:
- 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 Indian newspapers or online publications
- Published between July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025
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 open until 21st August 2025.
Prizes:
Award for the Most Sensitive and Responsible Report on Suicide (based on submissions)
- Prize Money: INR 10,000 + Certificate + Citation
All submissions for the award will be evaluated by a panel of experts.
Meet the Panel
Tanmoy Goswami
Tanmoy is a user-survivor and the creator of Sanity, an independent mental health storytelling platform with a reader community spanning over 50 countries. He is a fellow of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford; member of the Advisory Board at the Centre for Global Mental Health run by King’s College London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and LinkedIn Top Voice in Social Impact. He serves on lived experience panels and committees across the world and has spoken and delivered sessions at forums including the University of Amsterdam; the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women; Knight Centre for Journalism, University of Texas, Austin; and Columbia University, New York.
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, Deccan Herald, and the Free Press Journal. Apart from writing, he is the Patron of Deepalaya Foundation Inc., based in Houston, Texas, USA.
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.
