Imagine this: you, a television journalist, are live on air and suddenly, your news desk cuts to a breaking story about you! Well, that’s what happened to Sreeja Shyam, a news anchor and chief sub-editor with Mathrubhumi (Malayalam) news channel. Sreeja was anchoring a bulletin on Wednesday morning when news came that the Kerala state government's media awards for the year 2019 had been announced.
Sreeja was speechless for a few seconds as she realised that it was her name and photograph on air, as she had won the award for the ‘Best News Anchor’ of the year. Her news desk had given her no prior warning and kept it as a surprise. After being startled initially, Sreeja went to tell the viewers about the award she received. A small clip of the bulletin shared on social media makes it evident that she was embarrassed and happy as she read out the story.
As the news segment ended and the visual cut back to Sreeja, she is seen suppressing a smile. And then, she seamlessly moves on to the next story, work as usual. Sreeja started working as a journalist from 2007 and has been with Mathrubhumi news for the last six years. She has worked with three major news channels in Kerala. Sreeja has often received praise for being a calm news anchor. "I would sometimes get worried that I was not aggressive. I was happy that the award citation said mature news anchor. I was happy when Mathrubhumi had also made me anchor a 'good news' segment", Sreeja told TNM.
Here are the other winners:
Print media: General reporting - C Vimal Kumar (Kerala Kaumudi Kollam, bureau chief) Developmental reporting: Lenin Joseph (Deshabhimani News Editor)
News photography: Sajan V Nambiar (Mathrubhumi senior news photographer)
News photography special jury award: Rijo Joseph (Malayala Manorama chief photographer)
Cartoon: VR Ragesh (Madhyamam staff cartoonist)
TV News reporting: K Arun Kumar,( Asianet News chief reporter )
Special jury award: Shida Jagath (Media One) and Joshy Kurian (Asianet News)
Award for TV Interview: VS Rajesh (Kerala Kaumudi deputy editor ) and Jimmy James (Coordinating editor, Asianet News)
TV News Camera: Vijesh JKP (Asianet news)
Special jury award for news camera: Venu PS (Mathrubhumi news)
TV news editing: Ashokan PT (Manorama News chief video editor)