Indian journalist Ravish Kumar has been awarded the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award for “harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless”.

He is among five individuals who were declared winners of the award. The other winners of the award, dubbed ‘Asia’s premier prize and highest honour’, include Myanmar’s Ko Swe Win, also a journalist; Thailand’s Angkhana Neelapajit, human rights activist; Philippines’ Raymundo Pujante Cayabyab, musician; and South Korea’s Kim Jong-Ki, an activist working with violence and mental health issues in youth.

Kumar, 44, who is NDTV India’s senior executive editor is one of India’s most influential TV journalists, the award citation said. Kumar’s “Prime Time” programme “deals with real-life, under-reported problems of ordinary people”, it added.

“If you have become the voice of the people, you are a journalist,” the citation added.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Manila on September 9, 2019.

“In electing Ravish Kumar to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his unfaltering commitment to a professional, ethical journalism of the highest standards; his moral courage in standing up for truth, integrity, and independence; and his principled belief that it is in giving full and respectful voice to the voiceless, in speaking truth bravely yet soberly to power, that journalism fulfills its noblest aims to advance democracy,” reads the statement on the official website.

Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s highest honour.

It celebrates the memory and leadership example of the third Philippine president after whom the award is named, and is given every year to individuals or organisations in Asia who manifest the same selfless service and transformative influence that ruled the life of the late and beloved Filipino leader.