The Standard’s chief reporter Omar Bah won the Political Reporter of The Year Award at the sixth edition of the national journalism awards organised by the Gambia Press Union over the weekend.
Award winners included Mustapha Darboe of Malagen newssite, Jankey Touray of GRTS, Lamin Fadera of Afri Radio, Momodou Choi of QTV, Muhammed Bah of Foroyaa, Aminata Sanyang of GRTS, Kebba Jeffang and Kaddy Jawo of The Chronicle and Mafugi Ceesay of The Standard. Kerr Fatou won the Online TV Platform Of The Year; Brikama-Ba Community Radio won Community Radio of The Year Award; and King FM picked up the Commercial Radio of The Year awards.
Kenneth Best the founder of the Daily Observer (The Gambia) and the late Deyda Hydara, co-founder of The Point were honoured with Press Freedom Awards.
The Hydara family also recognised former GPU president Ndey Tapha Sosseh, and Fatou Jagne-Senghor, a human rights activist for their steadfast efforts in defending the legacy of Mr Hydara.
Thumbs down
The chairperson of the panel of judges, radio presenter Esau Wiliams, said “it was evident that a lot of preparation didn’t go into many of the entries.”
“There was a prevalence of editorial deficiency – in other words, laziness on an epic scale. There were even instances of derogatory language unfit for broadcast making it on air. We had examples of entries of clearly lifted academia being passed off as journalism, and a few instances of plagiarism. On the whole, it was not a good specimen of robust, honest, or ethical journalism.”
