The Northern Region branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) will hold its 2022 awards night tomorrow Wednesday, November 2, in Tamale.
The Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal is the Guest of Honor and the Paramount Chief of the Buipe traditional area who doubles as Vice President of the Gonjaland Traditional Council, Buipewura Mahama Abdulai Jinapor II as Chairman for the occasion.
This year’s awards is organized under the theme: “Promoting Tourism and Culture to Creat Jobs: The Role of the Media” as part of efforts by the GJA leadership to promote high journalism standards in the northern region.
The Awards Nomination Committee Chairman, Mr. Illiasu Adam at a news conference on Monday said his committee received a total of 39 entries at the close of nomination across nine categories. The categories he mentioned were; Water and Sanitation, Disability, Rural Reporting, Health, Education, Agriculture, Tourism, Road Safety and Peace and Conflict Resolution.
The disability category according to the Chairman attracted twelve entries making it the highest number of entries. Water and Sanitation had 3 entries, Rural Reporting 10, Health 5, Education 4, Agriculture 3, Tourism 1, and Road Safety 1.
“But unfortunately, there was no entry for Peace and Conflict Resolution category. And looking at all the entries, let me state the rules of the engagement were that, you could enter more than one entry; so when we looked at all the 39 entries, seven people were shortlisted for awards for the eight categories now” Mr. Adam explained.
The GJA Northern Regional Chairman, Mr. Yakubu Abdul Majeed, in his remarks expressed disappointment about the failure of Journalists to file entries for the Peace and Conflict Resolution category.
In his view, the conflict and peace reporting category should have attracted more entries than any other category.
The Chairman said, “People accuse us of always reporting the negatives – that when couples quarrel and it is in the news and we have opened nomination and no single reporter, filed, in fact that is unfortunate.”
The GJA Chairman however expressed optimism that next year when nominations are opened there would be more people competing for that particular category.
