Dar es Salaam, 21 November 2011: MultiChoice Tanzania today announced
the call for entries for the 2012 CNN MultiChoice Africa Journalist
Awards. The company called upon Tanzanian journalists to participate
in the awards, which culminate in a ceremony that is one of Africa’s
most prestigious events. The competition, now entering its 17thyear,
saw the 2011 top prize go to Fatuma Noor from Kenya for her
investigative series on the ‘Al-Shabaab’.
The awards began as the CNN African Journalist of the Year Competition
in 1995. In 2005, MultiChoice partnered with CNN to create the CNN
MultiChoice African Journalist Awards. These awards recognise
excellence in various fields of journalism and invite entries from all
over the continent. This year, hosted by CNN and MultiChoice Africa,
the awards were held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The East African regionhas always had a strong representation in the
final list and as the winners’ roll was unveiled in 2011, once again,
the region shone, with nominations from Kenya and Uganda. The
prestigious awards have been a turning point in the careers of winning
journalists and this was not lost on the winners.
Commenting on the Awards, MultiChoice Tanzania Public Relations
Manager, Barbara Kambogi urged journalists to collect entry forms and
submit their work. She said
“MultiChoice Tanzania would like Tanzanian journalists to receive
appropriate recognition for their work, on this important pan-African
stage. Therefore, I would like to encourage all journalists to take
advantage of this opportunity to showcase their best work, which we
feel contributes in a big way to the political and socio-economic
transformation of the continent’’.
The overall winner of the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards
takes home a substantial cash prize, earns a visit to the CNN Centre
in Atlanta to attend the three-week CNN Journalism Fellowship, along
with the prize awarded to all category winners, which consists of a
laptop computer, printer, a BlackBerry and a cash prize.
Forms for the CNN MultiChoice competition are available at MultiChoice
Tanzania offices at Oysterbayand also at Independent Television (ITV)
offices in Mikocheni. Journalists can also download the forms at
www.cnn.com/africanawards
The CNN African Journalist of the Year Award was founded in 1995 by
Edward Boateng (formerly African Regional Director for Turner
Broadcasting System Inc., CNN’s parent company) and the late Mohamed
Amin, to recognise and encourage excellence in journalism throughout.
MultiChoice Africa Corporate Social Responsibility:
MultiChoice Africa, the continent’s leading satellite pay TV service,
is committed to building a sustainable business in Africa as well as
to investing in corporate social investment projects which contribute
to the growth and development of the continent. The key focus is on
education and the uplifting of the communities in which MultiChoice
does business. To this end, MultiChoice Africa has established more
than 1000 MultiChoice Resource Centres in 27 countries across Africa.
These school Resource Centres are set up in partnership with
government to help improve the quality of educational resources by
using technology and rich education channels from DStv.