MISA Malawi Honors Top Journalists at Annual Media Awards
The awards, held each year to mark World Press Freedom Day, aim to promote professionalism, courage and specialization in the media industry.
MANGOCHI, Malawi— The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Malawi chapter celebrated journalistic excellence at its annual media awards ceremony Saturday in Mangochi, recognizing outstanding work from the 2023-2024 period, writes Winston Mwale.
The awards, held each year to mark World Press Freedom Day, aim to promote professionalism, courage and specialization in the media industry.
Categories spanned investigative reporting, human rights coverage, business journalism and more.
The 2023/24 judging committee was chaired by Upile Muhariwa, a communications expert from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Other judges included journalism academics, media professionals and representatives from organizations like the National Planning Commission, ESCOM, Old Mutual and DVV International.
In their assessment, the committee noted several positives, including an increase in overall entries, more winning stories from community media outlets, and high competition levels across categories - indicating the sector's growth.
However, they criticized the poor quality of some "Media House of the Year" submissions, a lack of interest in radio station category despite over 30 radio broadcasters, and instances of stories being submitted to multiple categories.
“We also noted this last year but we would like to reiterate that we have few submissions under the media house of the year, Radio. We need more submissions and not just the same usual ones. We need competition in the category. We have over 30 radio stations but less than 4 submit entries under the Media House of the Year Radio. Let us improve,” the judges wrote.
Veteran journalist Dr. Benson Tembo received the Lifetime Achiever Award, while Edith Gondwe of Nation on Sunday won the Raphael Tenthani Columnist of the Year Award.
In the top categories, Gregory Vitus Gondwe of the Platform for Investigative Journalism took home Investigative Journalist of the Year for print, and Thomas Kachere of Times Group won in the electronic/broadcast category.
The Times Group was a major winner, with Samuel Kalimira named Overall Winner as well as taking home prizes for best public infrastructure reporting in print and electronic media.
The Times Group also won Media House of the Year for television.
Other media house winners included Platform for Investigative Journalism (online), Zodiak Broadcasting Station (radio) and Times Group (print). Love FM in Salima won the Community Media House of the Year award.
New this year was the Podcast of the Year category, awarded to Times Group's "Let it Out."
Issues highlighted in the winning stories included corruption, human rights abuses, financial struggles of retirees, disaster impacts, barriers to girls' education and lapses in public infrastructure.
*Download the full MISA Malawi Statement on the awards below:
