Anti-climax as top GJA award goes without winner

Accra, Oct. 26, GNA - Dozens of journalists, sponsors and politicians who honoured the 13th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards night at the Banquet Hall on Saturday went home disappointed as the top award, Journalist of the Year, was not awarded because no entry met the standard.

"We regret to inform you that based on the entries received, the level of public participation in the process and the Awards Committee report, nobody in our estimation met the criteria .," the GJA said in a statement read at the function by its vice president, Mr Affail Monney. "There is therefore no Journalist of the Year for 2007," GJA said. This is not the first time in recent years that the top award was not given out, as there were no winners in 1992 and 1997.

The GJA said the award had been given annually to the person who had consistently shown throughout the year under the review to have "accumulated a body of journalistic work that the Association can be proud of as an exemplary for the practice of journalism in Ghana". It said through the award, the Association sought to show recognition for and the need to ignite pride and promote excellence in journalism.

"Preferably, the winner of the award should be someone who the public and the association can acknowledge for exemplary journalistic work produced during the year under the review.

"The award winner and the work being awarded should, even if surrounded by controversy, be defensible by the executives of the GJA based on sound journalistic standards and ethical principles." The GJA said in addition to applying the basic journalistic standards of accuracy, balance, relevance, background, social impact, ethical standards and language presentation, the individual to be awarded the Journalist of the Year would be subjected to a higher standard of excellence in reporting and writing and in a show of professionalism.

The GJA said if during a particular year, no individual was considered to have satisfactorily met the high journalistic standard, the Journalist of the Year Award would be withheld as a strategy to encourage further improvement of standards of journalism in Ghana. Mr Bright Blewu, General Secretary of the GJA, told the GNA in an interview that the decision not to award the top prize was not unusual. He noted that there was also no entry for Television Feature and there was no award in six categories.

Mr Blewu said from the onset, the GJA made it clear that it was not obliged to give an award in any of the categories including Journalist of the Year when it was, for some reasons, convinced that an award was not merited.

He referred to the report of the Awards Committee which noted that there was poor packaging and labelling on many of the entries leading to their disqualification.

The committee suggested to the GJA to properly inform media houses on what was expected of their staff in submitting entries for the annual awards.

It also said there was the need for mentoring and coaching in the various media houses and advised media houses to create an environment for continuous interaction between senior and junior journalists as a means of passing on skills and experience in the profession. Mr Blewu stressed that the criteria for selecting winners was accuracy, balance, relevance, social impact, background, ethical standards and language.

The GJA has also called for the participation of the public in nominating the Journalist of the Year, a process which requires that reasons are assigned. 26 Oct. 08