Senior journalist R Gopikrishnan dead

Kottayam: Senior journalist and chief editor of Malayalam daily ‘Metro Vaartha’ R Gopikrishnan died on Sunday, his family sources said. He was 65.

The senior journalist had not been keeping well for quite some time. His end came at around 1.15 PM, they said.

Gopikrishnan is survived by his wife and two children.

Senior politicians, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, among others, condoled the demise of the veteran journalist.

“Gopikrishnan upheld the ethics and values of journalism. During his career, he has done numerous interesting news reports and interviews. He has also worked with many media houses and held posts from a journalist to the chief editor,” Vijayan said in his condolence message.

Satheesan said the senior journalist had carved a niche in the field of journalism with his experience spanning decades.

“Gopikrishnan was the first journalist from Kerala to interview LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. He had also received numerous awards for his daring attempt,” Satheesan said.

Chennithala said Gopikrishnan was known as an excellent journalist.

Kerala Legislative Assembly Speaker M B Rajesh condoled the death of Gopikrishnan and said the state lost an excellent journalist who always upheld the values of the profession.

Beginning his career with Malayalam daily ‘Deepika’, Gopikrishnan worked as Deputy Editor of ‘Mangalam’ newspaper in Kottayam and New Delhi.

Later, he also held the responsibility of Deputy Editor of ‘Kerala Kaumudi’ daily.

The body has been kept at the Caritas Hospital and the cremation will take place on Monday around 4 PM at the Muttambalam municipal electric crematorium in Kottayam.

A well-known writer, Gopikrishnan co-translated author Dan Brown’s famous novel ‘Da Vinci Code’ to Malayalam with a journalist colleague in New Delhi.

He had won the best journalist award from the Kerala government in 1985 and 1988. He had also bagged the prestigious M Sivaram award, V Karunakaran award for political reporting, K C Sebastian award, C H Mohammed Koya award among others.

After he graduated from Kerala, Gopikrishnan studied journalism from the Georgi Dimitrov Institute of Journalism in Bulgaria.