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हिंदी खबरें 
CNN-IBN has nominated Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative’s (CHRI) External Collaborator on Right to Information in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Muzaffar Bhat for the second edition of Citizen’s Journalist Award to be held on 15 February at Hotel Taj, New Delhi. While there are 10 nominees, the award will be given to two people in each of the six categories. Noted Bollywood star Mr. Amitabh Bachchan will grace the occasion and will give away the awards.
Based in Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffar Bhat has been spearheading the Right to Information campaign in the state for many years now. He has advocated with the National Conference and its allies to include a promise to make RTI more progressive and substantial in J&K because the old Jammu and Kashmir RTI Act of 2004 was weak.
Later he continued to advocate with the Omar Abdullah Government to fulfil this promise. As a result of his tireless efforts & in conjunction with other CSO’s activists, the J&K RTI Act was replaced with a much better law in 2009. This law is more progressive than the Central RTI Act in some respects. With support from CHRI, he has been instrumental in creating awareness on Right to Information in his state and has been in the forefront of the J&K RTI Movement.
He has organized several public awareness raising events to spread knowledge about RTI at the community level in the Kashmir Valley and is leading the civil society initiative to secure effective implementation of the RTI Act in the state.
The Jury for "Citizen Journalist Awards" mainly consists of eminent people like Kiran Bedi (Retired IPS officer, Magsaysay Award winner for Govt service) , Ranjana Kumari (Prominent activist) , Aniruddha Bahal (India's best known investigative journalist) , Arvind Kejriwal (Magsaysay Award Winner for Emergent Leadership in 2006, for activating India's Right to Information movement) , Neelam Katara (Won national fame for her fight against the alleged killers of her son) and Rajendra Yadav (Eminent Hindi fiction writer and one of the pioneers of Nayi Kahani, Hindi literary movement) .
“The Award seeks to honour determined Citizen Journalists who expose the wrongs of society and fight against tremendous odds, bureaucratic red tape and even the lethargy of fellow citizens to bring about a positive change in our society.”
CHRI is very pleased to know that Muzaffar Bhat’s work for many years is being appreciated and noted by others and is now giving him the recognition he duly deserves and most importantly is being recognized at the national level by the media. We wish him well.
