Accra, Oct 26, GNA – The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards Committee, on Thursday announced names of 36 prospective winners for the 23rd GJA Awards.
The awards take place on Saturday evening, October 27, at the Kempiski Hotel in Accra.
The prospective award winners are Peter Quao Adator of TV3, Seth Kwame Boateng of Joy News, Rebecca Quaicoo Duno of the Daily Graphic and Peggy Ama Donkor of Ghana Television (GTV).
The others are Linda Tenyah Ayettey of the Daily Guide, Ama Amankwaah Baafi of Graphic Business, Joseph Opoku Gakpo of Joy News, Moses Dotse Aklorbotu of the Daily Graphic and Emmanuel Adu Gyamerah, also of the Daily Graphic.
Also among the prospective winners are Alice Aryeetey of GH One Television, Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman also of GH One Television, Timothy Ngnenbe of the Daily Graphic, Portia Gabor of TV3, Seth J Bokpe of the Daily Graphic and Suleiman Mustapha of Graphic Business.
Also included are Charles Andoh of the Mirror, Stanley Nii Blewu of TV3, Severious Kale Dery of the Daily Graphic, Joojo Cobinnah of Joy News, David Kodjo-Asinesi of Ghanaian Times and Nana Yaa Konadu of Peace FM.
The rest are Doreen Hamond of the Daily Graphic, Samuel Adadi Akapule of Ghanaian Times, Rebecca Ekpe of GBC Radio, Ernest Manu of Joy News, David Andoh of My Joy Online and Caeser Abagali of the Ghana News Agency(GNA).
Others are Dan Kwaku Yeboah of Peace FM, Gabriel Ahiabor of the Daily Graphic, Kwame Anum of TV Africa, Joyce Danso of the Ghana News Agency, Grace Nana Esi Boateng of Oman FM, Justice Adoboe of Xinhua News Agency, Sadick Adams of Atinka FM, Bernard Avle of Citi FM and Jamila Akweley Okertchiri of the Daily Guide.
Dr. Doris Dartey, Chairperson of the GJA Awards Committee, commended the prospective award winners and said they were chosen out of 548 entries, adding that the selection was based on the quality of the news items that were entered, with regards to standard journalistic practise.
She said qualities such as accuracy, balance, relevance of the content of the stories, proper presentation and decency among others were key in determining the selection.
The GJA Awards Committee Chairperson advised journalists who would be applying for awards in future, to find out the right way of presenting and submitting their entries, in order not to make mistakes in their submissions.
Dr. Dartey said the committee was extremely lenient and overlooked a number of faults because too many entries would have been rejected if they (the GJA Awards Committee) had followed standards to the letter.
She said the awards needed to be promoted a lot more, to attract every good news story and in effect, encourage excellence and professionalism.
Dr. Dartey said it was also important to encourage new and young journalists to submit entries for the awards, adding that it was unfortunate that year after year, the same old faces kept winning the awards.
She also noted that the awards also appeared to have a bias towards Accra, adding that there was the need to broaden it through improved publicity, to actively include journalists in the other regions of the country.
