Hyderabad Urdu journalist bags Press Council of India award

Syed Fazil Husain Parvez is the only Urdu journalist to bag the coveted Press Council of India award this year

Hyderabad: When Urdu journalism is staring at a bleak future, he has kindled a ray of hope. With his singular achievement he has proved that neither Urdu language nor its journalism is down in the dumps.

Syed Fazil Husain Parvez is the only Urdu journalist to bag the coveted Press Council of India award this year. The award is all the more important since in the history of Urdu journalism he is the only scribe to get recognition at national level. Interestingly this Hyderabad-based journo doesn’t represent any mainstream newspaper. Rather he paddles his own canoe. But what appears in his 16-page weekly tabloid ‘Gawah’ definitely gets noticed. And thereby hangs a tale.

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The prestigious award was given to journalists for their contribution in different categories like rural reporting, health, sports, cartoons, photography. Parvez was bestowed the award for his investigative article titled “Urdu Sahafat ke Gumnam Heroes aur Shaheedon.” Through a series of articles, he brought to limelight the contributions of over 150 little known journalists right from 1960 to 2020. He is perhaps the only Urdu journalist to do research work on various sections of the Muslim community.

In his long journalistic innings spanning over 40 years, Parvez has worked for several Urdu newspapers and journals. He started his career as sports reporter with Rahnuma-e-Deccan, one of the oldest Urdu daily published from Hyderabad. Later he worked for Awam and Nai Duniya (Delhi) before bringing out his own weekly. As Editor of Gawah and managing partner of Media Plus, a communication and public relations firm, Parvez has set up new benchmarks of excellence. The high point of this weekly is its forceful editorials. Under his column – Sacch to Magar Kehne Do – he churns out touching and often hard-hitting articles week after week on politics, social evils and international affairs. He doesn’t hesitate to call spade a spade. He doesn’t spare the Muslim community either and often holds up the mirror to point out the faults. The beauty of his writing is the literary flavour and engaging style.

Better late than never. The Press Council of India award has definitely bolstered the morale of Urdu journalists. Budding scribes have a lot to learn from Mr. Parvez, who rose from the ranks to carve a space for himself. “The future of Urdu journalism is not very bright. But it is not hopeless either,” says Parvez.