New Delhi: The Wire’s Sukanya Shantha received a special mention from the jury at the Danish Siddiqui Journalism Awards, 2026., while its contributing editor Karan Thapar was conferred an award for lifetime achievement by the The Public India last week.The Siddiqui award, named after the Pulitzer-winning photo-journalist who was killed while reporting from Afghanistan in 2021, recognises journalism that has made a meaningful public impact through ethical reporting, courage in the field, and thoughtful storytelling.The Public India is a Lucknow-based media platform that has instituted a set of awards in recognition of excellence in journalism.The Danish Siddiqui awards were given on April 5 at New Delhi and the Public India awards on April 3.The Danish Siddiqui award’s jury comprised veteran journalist Om Thanvi, The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan, The Hindu’s diplomatic affairs editor Suhasini Haidar, investigative journalist Josy Joseph, Jamia Millia Islamia professor Sabeena G., and Lallantop founder Saurabh Dwivedi.Jury members for the Public India awards included veteran editor Rahul Dev, academic Ashutosh Varshney and Press Club of India president Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty.Sukanya’s multi-part series on the disproportionate number of guilty pleas in the trials of National Investigation Agency cases has recently won The Media Foundation’s Vishwa Nath-Delhi Press Award for Fearless Journalism 2025 as well. Read the full series starting here.Thapar is a veteran interviewer whose questioning has helped extract essential perspectives from many a public representative, analyst and expert. He hosts The Interview, a popular show at The Wire’s YouTube channel.The other winners of the Danish Siddiqui awards across print, broadcast and photojournalism categories are as follows:Aiswarya Raj and Dheeraj Mishra, The Indian Express (Print)Abhinav Goel, BBC News (Broadcast)Zeeshan Latif, The Washington Post (Photojournalism)Aparna Ganesan, The Migration Story (Digital Broadcast)Apoorva Mandhani, The Print, (Digital Print)Avadhesh Akodia, Dainik Bhaskar (Jury Special Mention)This year’s chief guest was retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan B. Lokur, who delivered they keynote speech. A special address was delivered by former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan.Apart from Thapar, the Public India Digital Media Awards 2026 recognised Manjul for his cartoons and the New York Times’s Lydia Polgreen for lifetime achievement. The Jagdeep Chhokhar award for meaningful journalism went to Afrida Hussain and Sana Mattoo for photojournalism.