Eleven-member Committee inaugurated for GJA Awards

Accra, Feb. 7, GNA - An eleven-member Committee to judge entries for the 2005 Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards Competition was on Wednesday inaugurated in Accra. The committee members are Ms Joyce Aryee, Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Chamber of Mines; Nana Addo Twum, Ankobea of the Krontie Division of Akwapim; Mr Lante Lawson, Retired Chief Editor of Ghana News Agency; Mr Boakye-Dankwa Boadi, Chief Editor, Ghana News Agency; Mr Ken Bediako, Veteran Sports Journalist and Miss Lucy Brown, Former Head of News, Ghana Television (GTV).

The rest are Mr Gilbert Tietaah, Lecturer, School of Communication Studies; Ms Janet Quarcoopone, Media Foundation for West Africa; Ms Harriet Techie-Menson, Veteran Radio Journalist; Mr Rueben Abbey, Former Head of News and Current Affairs, GBC Radio and Mr Bill Marshall, Former Director NAFTI.

Ms Ajoa-Yeboah-Afari , GJA President, said the inauguration was part of the process of making this year's awards competition, transparent. She said the Committee's work would be to examine and evaluate entries to decide, who deserved prizes for their work, adding that the GJA Secretariat had so far received 111 entries for the various categories.

The categories are News Reporting, Feature, Investigative Reporting, Columnists, Photojournalism and eight Special Awards in Sports, Arts/Entertainment, Finance/Economic, Environment, Health, Rural Reporting, Human Rights and Peace-building.

The newspaper with the Best Layout and Design would be awarded, as well as the Best Radio Talk Show, Best TV Talk Show and the Journalist of the year.

Ms Afari said nominations by members of the public would be considered alongside that of the Committee for the Journalist of the year award and the Best Talk Show, adding that the two special awards for Human Rights and Peace-Building would be presented to a media house and not an individual.

She said Unilever Ghana Limited had agreed to sponsor the award for Journalist of the Year and called on organizations willing to sponsor any aspect of the award ceremony to contact the GJA Secretariat. She charged the Committee to deliver on time by presenting the award winners by the end of March and said the GJA was, however, not bound to give awards in any category if no entry merited an award.