PREMIUM TIMES reports win at CJID’s Excellence in Journalism Awards

Three PREMIUM TIMES reports won key awards at the maiden Excellence in Journalism Awards in West Africa held Wednesday night in Abuja.

The newspaper’s story, INVESTIGATION: How Nigerian soldiers killed unarmed civilians in Kaduna community, authored by Kabir Yusuf, emerged the Runner Up for the Community Reporting category.

Mr Yusuf is a member of this newspaper’s Investigations and Data Desk.

Another of our reports, SPECIAL REPORT: Benue communities feel the pains as government neglects PHCs, authored by Manasseh Mbachii, also emerged the Runner Up for the Health Reporting category of the awards. Mr Mbachii is a freelancer for PREMIUM TIMES.

The third story, INVESTIGATION: Inside Nasarawa schools where teaching, learning are tortuous, dangerous, authored by James Aparshe, won the 1st Runner Up, Best Investigative Reporting under the The Next Generation Alfred Opubor Awards for campus journalists in Nigeria. MR Aparshe produced the story as a student under PREMIUM TIMES’ editorial guidance.

The Excellence in Journalism Award was organised by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) to celebrate outstanding journalism in West Africa.

The award was held alongside the 10th anniversary dinner of the CJID at the closing event of the Media and Development Conference (MDC 2024) which began on Monday.

The conference themed ‘Navigating Global Shifts: Media and Technology for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Africa,’ had speakers from the media, civil society organisation, academia and the government. The conference also had over 250 delegates from different West African countries.

According to the Programmes Director of CJID, Akintunde Babatunde, the entries received over 388 entries from seven countries for the maiden edition of its journalism awards.

Winners

The Excellence in Journalism awards, which highlighted excellence in seven categories, saw journalists from Nigeria and other West African countries receive recognition for their exceptional reporting.

Winners in each category received a $1,000 cash prize while the runners up received $500.

The Community Reporting category was won by Godwin Asediba, a journalist with Media General, Ghana. The winner of the Best Health Reporting in West Africa was Jeliliat Nasiru of TheCable Newspaper.

Yero Bah of Nigeria Health Watch won the Best Reporting on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) while Juliet Buna emerged the runner up.

The Best Reporting on Social Accountability was clinched by Jamiu Folarin, a journalism lecturer who also practises journalism. Kwetey Nartey of Joy News (Ghana) was the runner up.

The Best Fact-Checking in West Africa, was jointly won by three Ghanaian journalists of The Fourth Estate. They are; Manasseh-Azure-Awuni, Adwoa Adobea Owusu and Evans Aziamor-Mensah. Kunle Adebajo emerged the Runner up for the category.

Prosper Ishaya of Social Voices won the Best Solutions Journalism as Olayide Soaga of Prime Progress emerged the runner up.

Bettina Nwelih of News Central Nigeria emerged the Runner up for the Best Climate Change Reporting category.

There was no winner for the category, according to the chairperson of the panel of judges and Editor of the Centre for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ), Ajibola Amzat. He said most of the entries submitted for the category are merely environmental or agricultural stories that do not pass for climate stories.