The AVBOB FCJ Excellence Awards competition doubled its entries this year.

The Board of Directors of the Forum of Community Journalists (FCJ) said in a statement, “We thank the editors, journalists and photographers from community newsrooms across South Africa, for ensuring a record number of entries for this year’s Excellence Awards.”

Judges’ convener Andre Gouws confirmed that 527 individual entries had been received.

The categories that attracted the most entries were hard news reportage, human interest, Front Page of the Year and Newspaper of the Year.

The remaining panel members are Willem Kempen, Virginia Keppler-Young, Cornia Pretorius, Johann Maarman, Marlene Malan, De Wet Potgieter, Buks Viljoen,  Marelize Venter, Colin Hoffman, Hennie Stander, Marita Meyer, Pieter Delport, Carla van der Spuy, Izak Minnaar, Hennie Homan and Eddie Alberts.

These esteemed adjudicators, who are all highly regarded in the community media industry and experts in their respective fields, will have the unenviable and difficult task of determining this year’s winners.

The AVBOB FCJ Excellence Awards will be held in Cape Town on August 4 with the FCJ’s national seminar taking place on the same day.

For further enquires, contact FCJ director Tobie van den Bergh on 072 220 1568 or 082 853 7817.