AMI holds Excellence in Media Awards programme

21 Novembre 2017

Banjul, Gambia, November 21 (Infosplusgabon) - The African Media Initiative (AMI) on Monday organized its third edition of the “ZIMEO Excellence in Media Awards” recognizing nine journalists as winners and 18 runners-up in a programme held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In a statement made available to Infosplusgabon , AMI said the awards recognised and celebrated outstanding work in journalism that focused on development themes.

The highest award – AMI Chair’s Award for Overall Excellence in Journalism – went to Jay Caboz of Forbes Magazine, South Africa, for his consistent exemplary journalism over the three years of the Zimeo programme.

The awards were said to have attracted hundreds of entries from across Africa in English, French, Portuguese and Swahili from print, radio, television and online media professionals.

A jury of 15, stationed in different parts of the African continent, picked the winners.

“The growing interest in these awards clearly points to the renewed importance that media in Africa accords to the issues that citizens are most concerned about,” said Eric Chinje, the Chief Executive Officer of AMI.

“We see an exceptional effort in the winning entries to drive the development agenda, because that’s essentially the objective of the Zimeo programme,” he added.

The awards were presented at a Gala Night, which capped the activities of a two-day Africa Senior Media Dialogue jointly organized by AMI, the African Union, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, UNESCO, and the Federation of African Journalists.

According to organizers, the awards were made possible through the generous support of Punch Newspapers of Nigeria, Al Jazeera, the African Wildlife Foundation and Ford Foundation’s Eastern Africa office.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/OLM/ GABON 2017

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