A Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Rugoho- Chin’ono was Saturday adjudged the overall CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year.
His television documentary on the everyday challenges of people living with HIV/ AIDS in Zimbabwe was adjudged the overall best entry.
He also won the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS reporting.
A Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Rugoho- Chin’ono was Saturday adjudged the overall CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year.
His television documentary on the everyday challenges of people living with HIV/ AIDS in Zimbabwe was adjudged the overall best entry.
He also won the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS reporting.
The event was jointly organized by CNN/Multichoice and Ghana-based Global Media Alliance.
The final 23 entries were selected from almost 2,000 entries from 44 African countries, the highest number of entries since the inception of the awards.
Israel Laryea of Joy FM in Ghana won the Radio General News Award while the Environment Award went to Emmanuel Mayah of Nigeria.
The rest of the award winners were Deji Badmus (Nigeria) – TV General News Bulletin; Peter Moyo (South Africa) – TV General News – Current Affairs; Barbara Angopa (Uganda) – Arts and Culture Award; Marjorie Copeland (South Africa) – Best Feature in Consumer Magazine; John Grobler (Namibia) – Economic and Business, and Richard Mgamba (Tanzania) – Print General News..
Others were Fernando Lima (Mozambique) – Portuguese Language General News; Mutwiri Mutuota (Kenya) – Sports Award; Evaline Ngono (Cameroon) Tourism Award; Koumoureoua Issa Napon (Burkina Faso) the electronic category of the Francophone General News Award.
The winner of the Health and Medical Award was Bamuturaki Musinguzi (Uganda); Boniface Mwangi (Kenya) won the Mohamed Amin Photography Award while the Free Pres s award went to Seyhoum Tsehaye of Eritrea, whose wife received the prize because Seyhoum is in jail for daring to report that some journalists and politicians he previously met in jail were incarcerated without trial.
Ghana’s President John Agyekum Kufuor, in a speech, said the only way the media in Africa could justifiably lay claim to their watchdog role was for them to share with governments the responsibility of ensuring that the opportunities for development were widespread and maximized across the continent.
“With the support of a vibrant and responsible media to mobilize the various societies behind respective national programmes, appreciable progress can still be made in achieving our development goals as nations and as a continent,” he said.
Kufuor noted that most African countries were behind in their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the close of 2015, but the media could support their countries in making appreciable progress by mobilizing the various societies behind the various national programmes.
“In Africa, it is unlikely that all countries will achieve all of the MDGs by th e target date. However, with the support of a vibrant and responsible media to mobilize the various societies behind respective national programmes, appreciable progress can still be made in achieving the MDGs,” he said.
He challenged journalists to report technical areas such as technology, energy, telecoms, transportation, agriculture, health care delivery, tourism and cultural integration to give impetus and confidence to both investors and the peoples of t he continent, to facilitate the realization of development objectives as contained in the NEPAD.
“Media practitioners need to educate themselves properly in the areas that affect the development of their nations in order that they will play their role as the fourth estate of the realm more effectively,” he said.
PANAPRESS
