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GJA Awards Committee inaugurated …awards slated for November 12
• Members of the Awards Committee from left are: Yaa Oforiwaa Asare-Peasah, Vance Azu, Andrew Edwin Arthur, John Vigah, Roger Quartey and Loretta Vanderpuye
The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has inaugurated a seven-member Awards Committee, with the mandate to evaluate all entries and stories to select qualified nominees for the various awards categories.
The Committee is chaired by former General Manager of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Yaa Oforiwaa Asare-Peasah with Mr John Vigah (Journalist with Ghanaian Times), Mr Vance Azu (former Journalist with The Mirror), Andrew Edwin (President of PRINPAG), Kwabena Antwi-Komadu (Academia), Harold Roger Quartey (Head of Production UTV) and Loretta Vanderpuye (Journalist with GBC) as members.
The occasion was also used to launch the 26th GJA Media Awards to reward deserving journalists. The event will take place at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel in Accra on November 12, 2022, under the theme, “Walking the path towards economic recovery: The role of the media.”
Entries for this year’s award will be submitted via the Association website.
For the first time, the awards will be a cocktail ceremony whilst the annual GJA Dinner night, will be more of a socialisation event where industry players and corporate partners get the time to meet and socialise.
Speaking at the launch and inauguration ceremony on Wednesday, President of the GJA, Mr Albert Dwumfuor, said to make the awards more competitive and relevant, the Association had reduced the number of awards to 45.
He said, one significant thing about this year’s awards was the fact, that the Journalist of the Year would be very competitive as the winner would be selected based on competitive entries.
“This is a departure from the practice whereby the Awards Committee selected a winner in consultation with the National Executive.
“We, therefore, urge all journalists who believe their works meet the criteria set out by the Awards Committee to file their entries. We assure them that the process will be fair and transparent,” Mr Dwumfuor said.
He urged journalists to focus on the Auditor General’s Report and ensure that the findings were fully implemented, to protect the public purse, and as well channel such funds into programmes such as the Free Senior High School (SHS), the School Feeding Programme, among others.
Former GJA President, Mr Ranford Tetteh, appealed to media practictioners to uphold the principles of the profession, devoid of any political affiliations to unearth stakeholders who embezzled and misappropriate public funds.
He said, it was the mandate of journalists to ensure that whatever resources given to individual (s) or institutions to embark on initiatives or programmes on behalf the state were properly accounted for.