Data journalism takes top prize in revamped awards

POLITICS

The fight against corruption depends to a large extent on women and men who work in institutions who are prepared to stand up and be counted in exposing the rot that they see. In doing so, these whistle blowers take risks that can be fatal in some cases. This is the case for our winner, where two whistle-blowers on the Esdina dairy project in Vrede in the Free State which was financed from state coffers but with the bulk of the money allegedly siphoned off by the Gupta family, found themselves in mortal danger. Our winner chronicles the two cases, showing how a police investigation that started with a flurry have all but fizzled out, raising the question whether this lack of enthusiasm by the police is linked to the state capture of which the project in question is a part. The winner is Tabelo Timse from Amabhungane.

FEATURE/LIFESTYLE

The winning entry showed the writer’s exceptional skills, research, planning and eye for imagery and was judged on a body of work for two stories; Female Gamers the New Sports Stars and The Disruptors: Generation 2030 – published in depth in Forbes Women Africa.  The winner is Jay Caboz from Media24.

LIVE REPORTING/BREAKING NEWS

The winning entry was exceptional. On the morning that a young girl was shot in a hijacking, a television reporter was doing a live studio crossing. When the news came in the journalist decided to leave the studio and rushed to the crime scene. With only a cell phone and an App that wasn’t working, the journalist started to tweet, later managed to do a live crossing with the cell phone and broke the story on national television. In the body of work the same journalist went beyond call of duty to report on the massacre on the Verulam mosque, and brought Durban’s monster storm into the homes of television viewers. The winners are Dasen Thathiah, supported by Nkanyiso Mdlalose, Susanna Holmes, Terence Stone and Francois Grobler from eNCA.

Click here to see who won the journalism awards for multi-platform, opinion, financial/economics and investigative.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5