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Journalists advised to pursue more self-initiated stories

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Journalists in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions have been advised to pursue more self-initiated stories that will impact positively on the society rather than focusing on event driven reportage.

Veteran Journalist Dr. Leonard Victor Amengor who is also the Chairman of the BA/GJA 2018 Awards  Committee adressing members of the Association stated that there are a lot of challenges confronting society that need the services of journalists to focus on, in order to provoke action from authorities and the public.

He was speaking at a Press Conference organized by the Ghana Journalist Association to announce the winners of the maiden edition of the BA/GJA Awards slated for the 27th of July 2019 in Sunyani.

The Press Conference was well attended by the Executives of the Association, Veteran journalists and the media practitioners from the three regions.

President of the Association in the Bono, Bono-East and Ahafo Regions, Larry Paa Kwesi Moses explained that the move is to allow Journalists from these regions who were unable to file for the national awards to do so at the regional level.

He further explained the reason behind the committee’s announcement of winners before the official awards ceremony.

As part of the process, a Committee chaired by Dr. Leonard Victor Amengor was setup to oversee the affairs of the Awards and also to help identify areas where the association needs to focus on.

Secretary of the Committee, Gloria Fofie in a report indicated a total of 70 entries were received by the committee within 4 weeks from the three regions.

The entries were open for all, except for the Most Promising and Best Journalist categories which were reserved exclusively for members of BA/GJA in good standing as at December 2018.

The other categories were Crime and Court Reporting, Mining, Feature Reporting, Social Protection/Awareness and Best Social Programme on Radio in both English and Akan.

Whereas the Sports and Social categories received numerous entries, other categories were sparsely entered by journalists with categories like Child Protection and Tourism not receiving any entries.

One of the criteria to determine the winners was that the Journalist should focus on independent initiated stories rather than event driven or official reportage.

This, according to the Chairman of the Committee who is also a veteran Journalist, Dr. Leonard Victor Amengor, is crucial to the development of society.

He bemoaned the fact that journalists overly focused on event driven reports neglecting the more important aspect of journalism which is to bring the attention of authorities and the public to challenges confronting the society involved in order to tackle them.

The Committee after going through the processes recommended training Sessions and Workshops for Media Practitioners in Research and Investigative Reporting, the proper use of Lexis in both English and Akan and good programme production materials. 

Story filed by Lawrence Manu-Gyan

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