The nine-member committee for the 27th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards has announced that four categories won’t be awarded at this year’s awards ceremony as they did not meet the criteria.
The categories include Sport, News Online, Photojournalist, and News Radio with one entry.
Addressing journalists at a press conference, the chairperson of the awards committee, Betty Apau-Opong stated that out of 276 individuals and media houses who filed for the various categories, 129 qualified for awards considerations of which 34 nominees were selected.
She said the selected winners met all the criteria as their works had captivating headlines, good introductions, multiple sourcing and interviews, coherent presentations, verified facts and data references, and excellent language, giving a balanced work.
Madam Apau-Opong also highlighted some deficits which resulted in the disqualification of some journalists and media organisations, this includes entries for the wrong categories, “which in itself suggested the misunderstanding of the specific categories. And also limited entries for radio in particular”.
General Secretary of the Association, Kofi Yeboah, lamented the low participation of female journalists and the minimal entries from the Western, Northern and Upper West Regions.
“The student’s category received 15 entries, which is not encouraging. Also, some persons who filed for the awards were not in good standings with the association, so they were disqualified as such,” he said.
The 27th annual Ghana Journalists Association Media Awards will take place on Sunday, October 29, 2023 at the Accra International Conference Centre at 3 pm.
This year’s awards, which will be held on the theme: “Leveraging media freedom to sustain the democratic and security architecture: The litmus test of Election 2024,” is expected to be attended by at least 1,000 participants, including ministers of state.
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Mensa, will be the keynote speaker at the ceremony, which will be chaired by the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rev. Dr. Ernest Adu Gyamfi.
He added that the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; the Chairman of the National Media Commission, Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, and the US Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia E. Palmer, will serve as guests of honour.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke