Asian Media Awards 2016 – Diversity and making that difference – full shortlists

September 20 2016

Annual awards event highlights amazing work in the British Asian Media

IN ITS fourth year now, the Asian Media Awards continues to be both a focal point and a moment to take a stock of one section of the country’s media – in all its guises.

Yesterday the shortlists for the 19 categories were unveiled at the ITV Studios on London’s Southbank ahead of the actual awards ceremony to take place in Manchester on October 27.

Many of the shortlisted individuals and organisations attended and heard from a handful of speakers, including Radio 4 comedian Tez Ilyas – whose jokes illuminated the evening – and newly elected MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan about the importance of the sector and how its health – or otherwise – was representative of larger concerns and trends within British society.

Professor Allan Walker, Dean of the School of Arts and Media at the University of Salford, one of the Awards’ sponsors, said progress was being made and that initiatives to identify and encourage diverse media talent was having an impact.

Santosh Bhanot from The Asian Circle

Studies consistently show that ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the UK media as a whole and the awards were set up, in part, to address and highlight gaps and encourage more participation and involvement.

Santosh Bhanot, founder and chair of The Asian Circle, which is the Awards’ official charity partner this year, explained that the organisation was part of ‘The Circle’ founded by pop star Annie Lennox. Its formation was to bring like-minded women together to help fight inequality and discrimination wherever it exists. Guests saw a short video explaining the charity’s work in South Asia, where it champions the role of women and tackles issues of domestic violence and abject poverty.

Dr Allin-Khan, a medic, who undertook humanitarian work in Pakistan and Palestine shortly after she qualified, and was voted to parliament in June following the previous MP Sadiq Khan’s successful election to be London Mayor, said she was delighted to be supporting the awards and felt it was important the media represented the diversity of the country.

Asif Zubairy, ITV commissioning editor entertainment, spoke about the channel’s support of the awards as a sponsor and the hope that there was an emerging pipeline of talent from the Asian media into the mainstream.

Perhaps the speaker who made the biggest impact on the evening was Ilyas. He described how incredible it had been for him as a working class “British National Pakistani” – “a BNP person” to scale the summit of the media world by landing a show, “Tez Talks” on BBC Radio 4, “posh people’s radio”, as he called it.

He also told the audience that he had never really thought a career in comedy and acting was feasible for someone like him who had grown up in a “two up-two down in Blackburn”, but the fact that he had made it to Radio 4 and had been approached by TV companies for further work, suggested to him there was progress and positive change in the UK media landscape.

Top pic (l-r): Asif Zubairy; Professor Allan Walker: Tez Ilyas an dDr Rosena Allin-Khan

Sanjay Shabi, executive director MediaCom also spoke and is one of the judges

In reverse order of unveiling (as on Twitter)

Journalist of the Year
Mobeen Azhar
Asish Joshi
Malik Meer
Kim Sengupta
Anita Sethi
Divya Talwar

Regional Journalist of the Year
Arif Ansari
Rahila Bano
Sangeeta Bhabra
Aasma Day
Rajiv Popat
Balvinder Sidhu

TV Report of the Year
‘Transplants & Trafficking’ (BBC West & BBC One)
‘Mixed Faith Marriage Protests’ (ITV Central)
‘Bigorexia’ (BBC Asian Network)
‘The Asian women stopped from being councillors’

Best websites
www.asianculturevulture.com
www.bizasialive.com
www.desiblitz.com
www.sisterhood.com

Umbreen Ali, Asian Media Awards media manager

Best Blog
www.britishasianpodcast.com
www.jetsetchick.com
www.sauravdutt.com
www.jayshetty.me

Best radio show
Bobby Friction
Preeya Kalidas
Noreen Khan
Shabnam Sahi
Sunny & Shay

Creative Media
SubhanAllah (Islamic Relief)
#WhatIreallyWant (Sterling Media)
Love Thy Neighbour – Carlisle Floods (Penny Appeal)
The World Chat Cricket Campaign (Here & Now 365)
Entouraaj brand and events campaign
IP Man 3 (Ethnic Reach)

Media Professional of the Year
Samir Ahmed
Farzana Baudel
Natasha Mudhar
Anjna Raheja
Salim Uddin Khandakar

Media Agency of the Year
Media Moguls
Media Hive
Delicious PR
Ethnic Reach
Here & Now 365

Best Investigation
‘The Forgotten Girls of Dhaka’ – BBC
‘The City with no water’ – Unreported World Series
‘Still Smiling: The women fighting back after acid attacks’ – BBC
‘ISIS: The British women supporters unveiled’ – Poppy Begum, Channel 4.
‘Forced Marriages Cops’ – Anna Hall, True Vision for Channel 4

Best TV character
Nitin Ganatra (Masood Ahmed, ‘Eastenders’)
Asim Chaudhry (Chabuddy G in ‘People just do nothing’)
Qasim Akthar (Zeedan Nazir, ‘Coronation Street’)

TV Channel of the Year
Colors
Hum TV
Star Plus
Zee TV

Best TV programme
‘Mudered by My Father’
‘The Asian Provocateur
‘Welcome to the Mosque!’

Regional Radio Station of the Year
Asian Star Radio
Panjab Radio
Sabras Radio
Sunrise Yorkshire

Outstanding Young Journalist
Kaamil Ahmed
Naina Bhardwaj
Raveena Ghattaura
Sana Sarwar
Jasime Takhar

Radio Presenter of the Year
Anita Anand
Anushka Arora
Yasmeen Khan
Nihal
Tommy Sandhu

Publication of the Year
Asian Express
Asian Wealth magazine
Eastern Eye
Pukaar magazine
The Asian Today

Best live event
Arijit Singh Live
BBC Asian Network Live
British Asian Festival
London Asian Film Festival

Best stage production
‘Bring on the Bollywood’
Laila: The Musical
Love, Bomb and Apples
The diary of a Hounslow Girl
‘Wipers’

More info and details of AMA Awards dinner October 27 2016: www.asianmediaawards.com

Asian Media Awards story 2015
Asian Media Awards story 2014

Editor’s Note: Congratulations to all nominees! It’s our third year in these awards and we’re delighted and very proud to be nominated and extremely honoured to be in such august company…thank you ALL for your support and interest and it means a lot to us as a small team striving to becoming yet bigger and serve you ever better, dear reader! 😉 And of course nothing would be possible without the hard work and dedication of the acv team – so salute them please! You will find them across the site and on our Youtube channel, thanks, Sailesh Ram