GJA launches 19th awards

Journalists desirous of winning awards conferred by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) this year, will have three more to compete for.

They are the Local Governance and Decentralisation Award, the Best Talk Show Award and the Forestry Award. The new addition brings the total awards to 49.

Additionally, the Promising Young Journalist of the Year Award has been named after Komla Dumor, a deceased senior journalist of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He died on January 18, 2014.

These were announced at the launch of the 19th GJA Awards in Accra yesterday.

The event to be held on Saturday, August 30, this year, will be on the theme “using development journalism to discern and defend the national interest”.

Development journalism 

Speaking at the launch, the President of the GJA, Mr Affail Monney, said the theme was chosen to remind the Ghanaian media of the need to place development at the centre of their reportage. 

Mr Monney said development journalism provided a better platform for journalists to monitor national programmes and projects as well as set the agenda and build consensus.

While acknowledging the difficulty in organising the annual GJA awards, Mr Monney expressed appreciation to corporate institutions, the government and institutions that had supported the association to annually organise the event.

Public participation

Mr Monney urged businesses and individuals to help promote media excellence, adding that “a free society with a free, independent and responsible media we believe engenders development and economic growth”.

Consistent with its tradition, the GJA will allow the public to participate in the selection process for four categories, namely, the Professor Paul Archibald Vianney Ansah Journalist of the Year Award, the Komla Dumor Promising Young Journalist of the Year Award and the Best Talk Show Award, by proposing nominees who are GJA members. 

“The public will be required to make the proposal in not more than 40 words stating their reasons for their nomination for works covering 2013.

The closing date for the submission of entries and public nominations is Monday, June 23 and entries are required to be delivered at the Ghana International Press Centre.