The Press Union of Liberia marked the 19th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, a day that honors the achievements and bravery of the men and women who call themselves journalists. The PUL 2011/2012 awards ceremony was held at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports complex in Monrovia with a number of side events, including a live band that brought the audience to the feet.
The awards program climaxed series of activities in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day organized by the Union. The program was sponsored by Cellcom, UNESCO, IREX, UNMIL and Coa-Coala. The panel of judges named the Heritage the best newspaper in the country for its remarkable work during the year under review.
PUL President, Peter Quaqua
The panel of judges included: Madam Musue Hadad, Chairperson. Madam Haddad is a renowned Liberian female journalist, who have won journalism and photo-journalism awards from the Press Union of Liberia, and also received international human rights awards for her work. Ms. Haddad is now Consumer Manager at the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA).
Other members of the panel included: Mr. Nathan Bengue, Director of Communications at the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC) and also former Vice president of the Press Union of Liberia, Mr. Hassan Kiawu, Director of Communications at the Ministry of Agriculture and also Media Consultant at the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) and Mr. Raymond Zabay, a seasoned Liberian journalist in the employ of the United Nations Mission In Liberia (UNMIL) Radio.
The rest are: Mr. Thomas Doe-Nah; Executive Director of the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL), Mr. Momolu V.O. Sirleaf, former President of the Sports Writers Association of Liberia (SWAL). Currently, he serves as Policy Analyst at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Mr. Albert Ansu, Program Director of the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP).
In her statement, the Chairperson of the vetting Committee, Musue Haddad said the Committee worked assiduously, and took into account news content, originality of materials submitted, grammar, general layout and above all, accuracy, balance and clarity otherwise known as the basic ABC of journalism.
Haddad said, though there were several entries for the “Investigative Reporter,” award, the committee went through all of the materials with “keen eyes,” but none of the materials met the Investigative Journalism award. She told the audience that the committee based their decision on several factors, including, “a report that broke new ground on a particular topic, or dug deeper into a topic than anyone has before, and a report that demonstrated that the reporter interviewed or quoted numerous on the record sources, as well as in some instances, interviews with anonymous sources, or whistleblowers, conducted the investigation for at least several months.” " After going through the entries submitted, the committee realized that none of the entries met the criteria for investigative journalism," Chairperson Haddad said.
To determine whether a piece is an investigative one, Haddad urged reporters to ask themselves the following questions: will this piece affect change in one way or another; what would be the outcome of the story? Would the story be ignored or will the report get people talking? Will the report spark an investigation; will it cause a policy shift or some other political change?
Speaking at the awards ceremony, the President of the PUL, Mr. Peter Quaqua, Congratulated the honorees and challenged them to continue to raise the standard of the journalism profession in the country.
On the other hand, he also challenged individual journalists and institutions that did not win to work harder next time, adding “you can be winners; it is just a matter of time.”
For his part, Mr. Chris Simpson, formally with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), commended the Liberian media for its contributions to the rebuilding of the country following years of political brouhaha.
Mr. Simpson said he was impressed with the huge eloquence of the Liberian media.
Mr. Sampson, who served as keynote speaker during the awards program, pointed out that the Liberian media has developed rapidly over the years.
However, he called on journalists to use the freedom of the press responsibly, urging journalists that they must be kind, perfect, accurate and truthful in the discharge of their noble profession.
The latest award won by the Heritage on May 4, 2012 brings to three the total number of awards the paper has received. It can be recalled that in 2005, the acclaimed European Union (EU) named the Heritage as the best newspaper in the coverage of the 2005 Presidential and Legislative Elections.
It can also be recalled that in 2012, the paper was ranked #1 on the Media Quality Barometer (MQB) Survey, an initiative of the Liberia Media Center (LMC) and its international partners.
Meanwhile, several individual journalists were also awarded for their remarkably work during the 2011/2012 year.
Those awarded are: Mr. Anthony Stevens (Radio Veritas); Sports Reporter of the Year, Mr. Abbas Dolley (New Democrat Newspaper); Photo Journalist of the Year, Mr. Robert Clark (Truth FM); Newscaster of the Year, Mr. Titus Tokpa (LBS); Legislative Reporter of the Year(Electronic category) and Mr. Tom Nyannue (FrontPage Africa Newspaper); Legislative Reporter of the Year(Print Category).
Others are: Madam Weade Williams (FrontPage Africa Newspaper); Executive Mansion Reporter of the Year, Madam Fatumata Fofana (Daily Observer); Columnist of the Year, Madam Fabine Quiah (Radio Veritas); Women's Rights Reporter of the Year, Mr. Peter Fahn (New Liberia Newspaper); Environmental Reporter of the Year and Mr. Jefferson Mansah (Radio Gbarnga); Development Reporter of the Year.
The rest are: Mr. Nathan Charles (LBS) Human Rights Reporter of the Year (Electronic category), Madam Weade Williams (FrontPage Africa Newspaper) Human Rights Reporter of the Year (Print Category), Madam Tetee Gebro (Sky FM), Business Reporter of the Year and Mr. Isaac Freeman (Power TV), Videographer of the Year.
Fabric Radio was named as the Radio Station of the year 2011-2012.
Other World Press Freedom Day activities included hundreds of journalists parading through the streets of Monrovia and a debate between students from two of Liberia’s leading universities on the importance of the Freedom of Information Law.
Scenes from the Ceremony
PUL's Vetting Committee
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to comment.