By Cheryl Alafia Thomas
ManoReporters’ Editor, Kemo Cham emerged winner of the top prize at the 2nd edition of the Inclusive and Anti-Conflict Reporting Award.
The award was organized by the Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) Sierra Leone, in collaboration with Minority Rights Group Africa (MRGA), as part of the European Union funded “Engaging the Media and Minorities to Act for Peacebuilding (EMMAP)” project.
EMMAP is a two-year initiative designed to train journalists from three West African countries – Sierra Leone, Senegal and Ghana – in reporting on minority rights issues with the goal of preventing conflict. It aimed to achieve through awareness raising on the interconnectedness between conflict, migration, and minority exclusion to help build and consolidate sustainable peace in the three participating countries.
The award, hosted separately in all three countries, is just one of the components of the project.
Mr Cham came ahead of Concord Times reporter Alhaji Aruna Sani and Ibrahim Mansaray of Engaged Salone, who emerged First and Second Runners-Up, respectively.
All three awardees were part of six shot-listed journalists who presented a total of 29 entries to the judging panel.
Dr. Francis Sowa, National Coordinator of MRCG, said the award marked the end of the EMMAP project, and he expressed delight that Sierra Leone came out of it as a successful co-implementer.
“We are happy to end these two years project on the note in which Sierra Leone, among the three countries, did extremely well in the implementation of the project,” said Dr Sowa, who is also a journalism lecturer and Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Media and Information Studies at Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone.
Image, Kemo Cham, ManoReporters
The award ceremony was held in the conference room of the 50:50 Group in Freetown and it was attended by major stakeholders in the media industry, including the Executive Secretary of the Independent Media Commission, Khalil Kallon, who presented the awards to the winners.
Other journalists who made it among the six finalists are Alusine Rehme Wilson and Sia Patricia Ngevao, both of Awoko Newspaper, and Alfred Koroma, who is also with Concord Times Newspaper.
The submissions of the journalists represented a display of quality work which made it tough for the judges to determine the winners, said journalism lecturer Joshua Nicol, who was chief judge in the selection committee.
According to Mr Nicol, who is also Head of Department for Journalism and Media Studies at FBC, originality, investigative approach and policy regulations were top among parameters they considered while scrutinizing the submissions.
Alhaji Manika Kamara, National Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), hailed MRCG and its partners in the EMMAP project for complementing the umbrella journalist body’s pursuit of capacitating journalists in the country. He expressed pride in ongoing efforts towards specialty development among journalists, noting that through this, many journalists have established themselves as beats reporters in sports, courts and health reporting in the country.
Meanwhile, Mr Cham, the top prize awardee of the day, tagged his recognition as a win for all those who participated in the competition.
“While I got the top prize, we all are winners in the since that we had works to submit as entries. This is important to me,” he said.
The ManoReporters editor hoped his award would serve as a motivation for younger journalists to be desirous for perfecting their arts. He committed himself to continue helping capacitating younger journalists who are willing to share from his experience.
