Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. SEVEN Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) journalists on Thursday came out tops after scooping awards in various categories during this year’s edition of the National Journalism and Media Awards (Njama).
The awards reinforce AMH’s market leader position in the industry in coming up with real, factual and compelling stories.
AMH are the publishers of The Standard, NewsDay and Zimbabwe Independent newspapers and online broadcasting channel, HStv.
The Njama awards are organised by the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists. The ceremony was held in Harare.
Mthandazo Nyoni scooped the ICT Journalist of the Year Award.
Vanessa Gonye won the Agriculture journalist of the year award, with Harriet Chikandiwa coming out tops in the Health Reporter of the Year category as well as being runner-up in the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs category.
Moses Mugugunyeki was runner-up in the Renewable Energy Journalist of the Year category, while Mashonaland West correspondent Nhau Mangirazi came second in the Environment Journalist of the Year category.
Gamuchirai Nyamuzihwa was a runner-up in the Health Reporter of the Year category. Sharon Sibindi was the Community Impact runner-up.
In his speech at the awards, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services minister Jenfan Muswere said the media has a role to play to inform, to educate, to raise awareness, to highlight where there are shortcomings, expose corruption and report on the development that is taking place in the country. He said the media must also report on the economic transformation and the performance of the economy.
“Our major goal is to ensure that we achieve an upper-middle-income society by 2030. So how do we achieve all that? What is the role of the media? It is a fact that Zimbabwe’s economic development, the macro-economic growth, is on an upward trend. The economy continues to grow,” Muswere said.
“The economic growth rate has been revised, not by us, but also by the International Monetary Fund and international institutions. It is a fact that the government is utilising the domestication of value chains to develop a key trade route, which is the guidepost for Zimbabwe. It is a fact that Zimbabwe’s economy is growing.”
He said the awards were also celebrating factual reporting.
“We are celebrating the importance of journalism as a core of our democracy. We are celebrating journalism as a profession. We are celebrating journalism as the driver of macro-economic growth that is going to catalyse and grow this economy.
“We are celebrating the capacity for members of the fourth estate to be able to report on what is taking place. We are reporting on the growth of each and every sector in our economy, but also we report on the negative issues, and we have a very open-door policy as the government, very transparent, with nothing to hide. This is precisely why we developed the Freedom of Information Act to support the robustness of the media industry,” he said.
Muswere acknowledged the tough operating environment in the media industry, where some employees have gone for months without being paid, saying the government was working on measures to stabilise the sector.
“As part of the new integrated media policy, we included the establishment of a National Employment Council for members of the fourth estate. When there are meetings, we want to deal with the new direction of journalism.
“We are advising the salaries in the public sector, and if there are any challenges in the private sector, feel free to communicate, then we can find ways on our part to improve the work of journalists. The media industry should be utilised to grow the economy,” he said.
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