UK's leading journalists honoured at 10th Asian Media Awards

The 2022 awards, hosted at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate, celebrated the achievements of journalists, broadcasters and leading creative industry professionals in Manchester.

The ceremony was hosted by Sky Sports News presenter Bela Shah and honoured journalism, online, radio, television, creative media, stage, theatre and live events in 23 categories.

The University of Salford is the premier partner for the awards which aim to shine a light on the accomplishments of media professionals from across the UK.

Professor Allan Walker, Dean of the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at the University of Salford, said:

“This year was the 10th anniversary of the Asian Media Awards and I’m delighted to congratulate the winners, all of whom were of exceptional standard and many, of course, are well known household names.

“The School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology has been the premier sponsor for nine of these years and it has been a privilege to see the event grow in its importance to the sector.  Similarly, at Salford we are seeing an increasing number of alumni from the South Asian community gaining employment in the industry.”

The Daily Mail’s Isaan Khan was named the University of Salford’s Outstanding Young Journalist after securing several ‘agenda-setting’ exclusives. These included leading the national coverage of the ongoing racism scandal at Yorkshire Cricket Club and a successful campaign to recognise Britain’s first black female Olympian.

He said: “I would like to thank the Asian Media Awards for this event – what a great event it is and also the Daily Mail too.

“I joined on a Stephen Lawrence Scholarship a few years ago and was given a platform to cover a variety of stories.”

Paul Broster, journalist, and Associate Dean at the University of Salford said: “Never has it been more important in the age of digital overload and disinformation to do what all leading journalists do and cut through it all.

“The winner is someone who has done something all leading journalists do – change the agenda with exclusive material.”

The Best Programme / Show award was presented by Debra Prinselaar, senior lecturer and programme leader at the University of Salford and AMA panel member. It was won by Jassa Ahluwalia for his BBC documentary ‘My Hometown: Jassa Aluwalia: Am I English?’

The programme tells Jassa’s experience of growing up in England with a mixed heritage family as he reveals his feelings, struggles and insecurities which fuel him to champion issues of mixed heritage identity in the UK.

He said: “My work was born out of a search for belonging as a British South Asian artist, so to be recognised by the Asian Media Awards, in the company of so much brown excellence - feels massive. I really had to fight back the tears when I heard my name called out.”

Debra said of the award: "The submissions were a stimulating reflection of life from a variety of points of view. Each of the shows had a powerful message about life in the UK as an Asian and the winner made a truly novel and emotional film about living with white skin and fair hair but being of Asian descent. His motto of 'both not half' was illustrated beautifully."

In the journalism categories, ITN Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo was named Journalist of the Year for the second year running, whilst BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire reporter Pritti Mistry picked up the Regional Journalist of the Year award and the New York Times Podcast series ‘The Trojan Affair’ won the Best Investigation Award.

There were also awards for BBC Sport’s Nikesh Rughani who was named Sports Reporter of the Year and Andrew Misra of ITV Border won the Report of the Year category for his piece ‘Helping Children in Crisis’.

BBC 5Live broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake, who presents his daily afternoon show on the station from the BBC’s Dock House studios, a neighbour to the University of Salford’s MediaCity campus, was awarded Media Personality of the Year.

See the full list of the award winners.