Obit

Vinod Mehta, 73

Indian journalist Vinod Mehta passed away on March 8. He was 73.

Known as a fearless commentator on Indian politics, Mehta launched several newspapers and magazines during his four-decade career. He was the founding editor of the newspapers Indian Post, The Independent, and the Delhi edition of The Pioneer. (Voice of America)

Mehta also founded the Sunday Observer, a highly-respected Sunday paper in India that featured provocative articles and a letters section, all reflective of his brand of honest and fearless journalism. In 1995, he founded the weekly news and views magazine Outlook. His memoir, Lucknow Boy, was released in 2011.

Mehta is remembered both by admirers and critics as a practitioner of independent-minded editorship, always prepared to face termination or resignation in his commitment to uphold responsible journalism for a larger cause. (BBC News)

Claude Sitton, 89

American journalist Claude Sitton died last March 10. He was 89.

An Atlanta, Georgia native, Sitton is considered one of the leading journalists who covered the Civil Rights era. Having previously worked for the International News Service and the United Press, Sitton became a press attaché for the United States Information in Ghana. In 1957, he was hired by the New York Times as a copy editor and after nine months on the desk was asked to return to the South as a Times correspondent. (New York Times)

Sitton’s work from 1958 to 1964 demonstrated his indomitable dedication to journalism, often putting his life on the line to cover nearly every major civil rights story including the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and the murder of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia. He set the standard for reporting during the era, unafraid of those he thought were against the public good, and was admired for his unromanticized and detail-driven coverage of the struggle for equal rights. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

This kind of determination earned him the editorship of North Carolina’s News & Observer in 1968, a post that he held until 1990. His Sunday columns still focused on civil rights and other topics like the environment and public education, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1983. Sitton was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1987. His other honors include the George Polk Career Award in 1991 and the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2000. (The News & Observer)