The Nigerian Breweries Plc with her Golden Pen awards honors journalists and reporters who are outstanding in their fields.
Eric Duno of the Punch Newspaper at the weekend emerged Reporter of the Year at the 10th Golden Pen Awards organised by the Nigerian Breweries Plc, smiling home with the sum of N2m.
New Telegraph reporter, Mojeed Alabi, won the Golden Pen Report of the Year, while the Photo Journalist of the year award went to Olubunmi Muftau Azeez of the Vanguard Newspapers.
Both went home with the sum of N1m each.
To clinch the Reporter of the Year award, Duno beat Bayo Akinloye, who emerged the first runner and Chukwudi Okota, second runner up.
The first runner up went home with N1m, while the second runner up got N750, 000.
For the Golden Report of the Year, there was only one winner, who incidentally was the winner in the same category in 2017.
Other winners in the Photo Journalist of the Year category were Odutayo Odusanya and Lucy Ladidi Elukpo first and second runners up respectively.
The first runner up received N750, 000 while the second runner up took home N500, 000. All the winners received special statues and equipments to aid them in their work.
Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, former Managing Director, Daily Times Newspapers who chaired the Panel of judges for the 9th edition received a special recognition award.
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The theme this year was Agriculture, Local Sourcing and Industrial Development.
Explaining the reason behind the single winner in the Golden Report of the Year category, the Chairman of the Panel of judges, Prof. Ralf Akinfeleye, said the quality of reports entered in the category was so low the judges found it difficult of find other reports that met the criteria for winning.
He lamented the poor quality of materials turned in for this year’s competition. “This year, we received more entries than the year 2017, however, we noticed a decline in the quality of materials submitted this year. There were many grammatical error, wrong use of syntax and lack of depth in many of the reports.
“Also in some reports, there was no relation between the headline and the story”
He called on editors to properly scrutinise and edit reports before they are sent in.”
A total of 243 entries were received for this year as against 234 entries for last year.
Welcoming guests to the event, the Managing Director and CEO, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr.Jordi Borrut, noted the NB Plc was committed to supporting both journalism and social development, hence the awards.
The Guest speaker, Dr Reuben Abati, spoke on “The media and agenda setting for economy development.”
