African Journalists receive Information Society awards

African Journalists receive Information Society awards

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and its partners will award deserving African journalists for reporting on the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in development on the continent. The awards ceremony will be held during the annual Highway Africa Conference taking place in September in Grahamstown, South Africa. The conference, to be held from 11-15th September is host to more than 500 journalists from over 40 countries and is dubbed "the biggest annual media event in Africa".

The 2006 African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Awards, now in their fourth year are aimed at supporting African media to create greater awareness on the role of ICTs in socio-economic development, as well as supporting their use by African media.

"African journalists are key actors in the Information Society, which requires a multi-disciplinary approach to reporting. This in turn means linking ICTs to Africa’s development challenges in areas such as health, education, governance commerce or trade," said Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-in-Charge of ECA's ICT and Science & Technology Division (ISTD). She added, “The increasing number of entries each year signifies a maturing of ICT reporting in Africa, ranging from Algeria to Cameroon and Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia.”

The partners involved in the AISI Media Awards include German Technical Corporation (GTZ), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Institute for Information Communication and Development (IICD) and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

The following are the 2006 AISI Media Award winners:

  • The AISI-GTZ 1st Prize print category on Promoting the Information Society goes to Marie Noelle Guichi from Cameroon. Her story “L’ART le Gendarme sans autorité” focuses on the challenges faced by ICT regulatory agencies in Africa and how they can impact on citizens’ lives.
  • In the AISI-GTZ-RADIO category on Promoting the Information Society, 1st Prize winner BAPIDI-MBON Didier Parfait from Cameroon whose story on “Audaticity une mine d’or pour les radios africaines” discusses an interesting and original topic - digital radio software.
  • Don Pedro Aganbi from Nigeria gets the1st Prize in the AISI-GTZ TV category for his programme "ICT Africa”, a weekly broadcast on initiatives in Africa, showing how ICTs can empower rural communities.
  • For the AISI-IICD Local Content Award, the 1st Prize goes to Roger Taakam from Cameroon, whose article: “Les Promesses du logiciel libre “ debates the relevance of Free and Open Source Software and implications for the development of the software industry in Africa.
  • Laid Zaghlami from Algeria, gets the 1st prize in the AISI-IICD Local Content Applications category, for his analysis of the challenges facing Algeria in building an inclusive information society and proposes the creation of sound policies to support local content applications.
  • The 1st prize for the AISI-IDRC Award for Research and Innovation goes to Jeanine Fankam from Cameroon, whose story: “On sécurise les voitures à partir du portable” is a compelling and informative article that introduces the reader to an otherwise unknown African inventor who utilized mobile technology as a tool for reinforcing vehicle security.
  • The 1st Prize for the AISI-IDRC’s Award for Reporting on ICT Policy goes to Emmanuel Okwuke from Nigeria, whose article "Unified licensing regime helps provide understanding of the need for a unified regulatory environment for both mobile and fixed telephony to enhance regulation effectiveness.
  • The AISI-OSIWA 1st Prize for Reporting on ICTs and Rural Communities goes to Evelyn Tagbo from Nigeria, whose story, " Kuri: A case in rural Telephony” demonstrates the use of ICTs to overcome daily challenges in Northern Nigeria and clearly demonstrates impact on rural communities.
  • The AISI-OSIWA 1st Prize for the Best Female Reporter goes to Ester Nakkazi from Uganda, whose article: “Regulator Seeks Control of Ugandan Domain Name” is a refreshing account on an under-reported issue in Africa - the management of domain names, which is a critical and hotly contested global issue based on managing and governing the Internet.

The Awards ceremony will be aired live on 12th September by South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) across Africa.

For more details visit: http://www.uneca.org/aisi
Tune in to SABC-TV Africa on the DSTV channel. For programme listing, go to http://www.sabc.co.za/