BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE- Some local journalists will be smiling back home with their well-deserved trophies in December.
The Swaziland Editor’s Forum (SEF), in a press statement, has revealed that local journalists will be honoured at Journalism Excellence Awards which will be hosted on December 10, 2022.
The official launch of the award ceremony will be tomorrow.
According to the statement, the 2022 Excellence Awards are an opportunity for journalists to interact with stakeholders, newsmakers, business and the general public and promote understanding of news, press freedom and ethics.
“News creates and sustains a market of ideas that support better decisions and enabled environment for good governance, social cohesion and economic prosperity. They influence public attitudes and actions, sometimes in important hidden areas that unseen and out of sight, do not rise to feature in ordinarily discussion.
“News also creates economic markets for goods and services in advertising on Newspapers, radio and TV that stimulate competition innovation and improvement,” read the statement.
The SEF statement went on to say competition was healthy for social and political governance, for economic development and for healthy civil society as it promoted competition making sure that institutions continue to be fit for purpose and that responsibility is allocated to the ablest and competent.
“Journalism Excellence Awards are part of the platforms for building public confidence in credible news that the public can trust to be true, independent, free of harm and accountable. Competition between journalists improves quality and public awareness of the quality standards they can expect in the news.
“It is part of the services that the Swaziland Editors Forum established since 1999 avails to the public as assurance of journalism professionalism and press freedom. The Forum is pleased to announce the launch of the 2022 Journalism Excellence Awards.”
In adjudicating, the judges will recognise and honour outstanding reporting in each category. The winner will be selected from three submissions. Stories will be awarded based on accuracy, initiative, originality, clarity of interpretation and value in fostering understanding of the subject by the public. In each category there are two awards, a Silver and Gold.
According to the statement, the judges will be respected knowledgeable persons with credible professional practice who are independent and not associated with any media house. The judges’ decision will be final. A request for review or appeal may be considered by the Media Complaints Commission.
Stories will have been published between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022 in a news publication published in Eswatini. Articles will be presented in the original format of the media genre and certified by the editor of a media institution.
The closing date for submission of stories for adjudication for the 2022 Journalism Excellence Awards will be November 30, 2022.
2022 JOURNALISM EXCELLENCE AWARDS CATEGORIES
Professional Journalists in the print and broadcast radio and TV are invited to submit their best articles for adjudication in the following categories:
- Journalist of the year: Overall achiever recognizing the story of the year.
- Business Journalist of the Year
- Crime and justice Journalist of the Year
- Rule of law, safety and security Journalist of the Year
- Politics Journalist of the Year
- Governance and Effective Policies Journalist of the Year
- Human Rights Defenders Journalist of the Year
- Women and Gender Justice Journalist of the Year
- Agriculture and food security Journalist of the Year
- Science and Technology Journalist of the Year
- Finance and Economy Journalist of the Year
- Health Journalist of the Year
- Entertainment and Lifestyle Journalist of the Year
- Climate Change and Environment Journalist of the Year
- Power and Energy Journalist of the Year
- Education and Knowledge Journalist of the Year
