Lowvelder among top papers in the country at FCJ Awards
The Forum of Community Journalists recently welcomed community journalists from all over the country to Cape Town for its annual awards. Lowvelder was right up there with the big names.
Nominees in the Avbob FCJ Excellence Awards 2022 from the Lowveld Media stable made their way to the Mother City recently to attend these prestigious awards.
Lowvelder walked away with the award for best front page, corporate-owned, paid, and took second in its category for newspaper of the year. Paarl Post took the first place this year.
Lowvelder journalists Chelsea Pieterse and Linzetta Calitz were among the top 10 in three categories; Pieterse for hard news and Calitz for hard news and photography general.
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Production editor Mark Kinnear reached the top 10 in the headline writing category.
A statement released by the competition host, the Forum of Community Journalists NPC, said the entries for the FCJ Awards had almost doubled from last year.
The 2022 competition attracted 527 individual entries. Top honours went to Estella Naicker of the Northern Natal News and Newcastle Advertiser (Journalist of the Year), Emily Bain of the Northcliff Melville Times (Alet Roux Award for Upcoming Journalist of the Year) and Wayne van der Walt of Highvelder, the Photographer of the Year.
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Hermanus Times received the Avbob Best Community Involvement Award for its Nomzamo Educare Centre project.
“Avbob through its financial investment in the forum and industry and the ongoing support from Caxton and Media24, allowed the FCJ to further enrich its offering and support to members – community journalists. Without this support, especially from Avbob, the forum will not be able to do this.
“This support enabled the forum to reintroduce the industry to the No Guts, No Glory regional seminars, kicking off with the Limpopo, Gauteng and Mpumalanga seminars to be held on August 17 and 18. We thank Avbob, Media24 and Caxton for their support. The forum has been able to contribute significantly to the upliftment of community journalism simply because of the trust in the work done by the forum and community journalists,” said FCJ’s executive director, Marietta Lombard.
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In his address, Avbob CEO Carl van der Riet said, “As a business, Avbob is deeply rooted in and connected to the communities in which we operate. This is reflected in our support for community journalism. We applaud the work you do to keep our communities informed and empowered with information. According to the United Nations, without freedom of the press there can be no ‘real democratic societies’. Your work is an essential contribution to the building of a transparent and free society.”
The forum also hosted its national seminar prior to the gala dinner with guest speakers Max du Preez and Press Council executive director Latiefa Mobara.
The FCJ commended and thanked the judges’ panel and convener, André Gouws, for the phenomenal work in judging this year’s entries. “We commend and congratulate all the finalists and winners of the Avbob FCJ Excellence Awards 2022,” said Lombard.
