Two journalists of the New Times Corporation, publishers of the Ghanaian Times and “The Spectator” have been nominated for recognition at this year’s Ghana Journalists Awards slated for Saturday, November 12, 2022.
Ms Benedicta Folley and Mr Geoffrey Buta were nominated alongside 20 others to be awarded at the 26th edition of the awards ceremony on the theme; “Walking the path towards economic recovery: the role of the media.”
Of a total of 25 competitive awards up for grabs on the night, Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) is expected sweep three awards, seven to the Multimedia Group, four, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), three for Media General (TV3) and one to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
Other nominees from media houses including the EIB Network, Atinka Media Village and the Fourth Estate would also be awarded on the night.
Apart from the individual awards, three radio and television programmes namely DiAsa, News File and N3gb3 Ny3sh3 (where have you reached) which aired on Atinka TV, JOY FM and Obonu FM, respectively, would also be recognised.
The Chairperson of the GJA Awards Committee, Mrs Yaa Oforiwaa Asare-Peasah, making the announcement in Accra yesterday, said a total number of 137 entries were received this year as the categories were reduced.
She indicated that some works were dropped in the final selection due to factors including wrong categorisation, poor organisation of content, poor quality of presentation and running videos without voices.
Disqualification of entries by non-members or members not of good standing with the Association, disjointed sentences and incoherent ideas, misunderstanding of the entry categories and stories failing to meet the criteria for awards, also barred some works from making the final selection.
“It is essential to note that the committee selected the best entries for the awards. The awards committee recommends that an award could be shared in highly competitive situations that pulls a tie,” Mrs Asare-Peasah said.
The GJA president, Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, in a remark, said, the theme for this year’s awards ceremony reflected the significant contributions of journalists towards Ghana’s socio-economic growth.
He lauded the Award’s Committee for taking the pain to vet works presented by journalists to ensure that deserving practitioners were awarded at the end of the day.
“I must say that the Award Committee has done a yeoman’s job, working around the clock, sometimes deep into the night so we can have deserving winners whose selection and approval was based on merit and nothing else,” he said.
“This year we are also going to acknowledge institutions and individuals whose contributions to the GJA had been sterling,” Mr Dwumfour, added.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH