19th GJA Awards

Despite the conspicuous flaws and recklessness of some journalists and media institutions, there is no doubt about the goodwill that the Ghanaian Journalist has and continues to enjoy.  Even though this assertion is not scientific, the overwhelming support the Ghana
Journalists Association, the umbrella body of all journalists in the country attracts in the organisation of its annual awards lends credence to this fact.  

The GJA awards is one event every journalist worth the salt looks up to in a year,  to measure his or her performance against that of other crack practitioners.  It is one platform on which members of the inky fraternity gets the opportunity to wine and dine and  fraternize with colleagues given their  heavy schedules.  

The 19th GJA Awards will indeed go down in history as one of the most heavily patronised by practitioners and stakeholders
alike.  Institutional support was also at its best  with companies
competing to donate one item or the other to motivate journalists who distinguished themselves within the  year under review.

This year's event at  the banquet hall of the State House was graced by  no less a personality than the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu as the guest speaker.  The great Ashanti King with a retinue of about 100 gave a most wisdom-laden speech which will serve as food for thought for a
long time to come.  

The Asantehene indeed spent a sizeable portion of his speech to focus on the need for journalists to evaluate themselves, know who they are in society and how society reveres them.

He also drew the attention of journalists to the role they play in moulding people's lives,  and the  might of the pen against  the
sword,  especially the harm they can cause when they use the pen to
destroy  the hard won reputation of people.  

He also drew attention to the repercussions when journalists compromise the truth conjure
figures and manipulate information.  

The Asantehene's speech covered
every aspect of social life, from business, corruption in the media,
governance to over-politicisation of issues.  On the awards itself, it is apparent the State Broadcaster, GBC is fast establishing itself as the-must beat organisation.  

Last year, GBC won the highest number of the awards and clinched the coveted diadem, the journalist of the year which went to Kingsley Obeng Kyere.  

This year round GBC was at par
with the Graphic Communication Group with seven awards each.  Quite refreshing was the fact that ladies within the fraternity won most of the awards with the coveted title also going to a female, Mabel Aku Banasseh.

Ladies in GBC including  Soyokuor Quarcoo Tsere,  Rebecca Awuah,  Rachel Quartey and Issabella Owusu Oppong, indeed made GBC
proud with their feat.  

Again Obonu FM, GBC's award winning Ga Station
was on hand to beat other competitors to it.  Once again the Award Committee failed to honour people behind the scene like Editors and Producers who work on some of these award winning reports and guide the reporters to put up the stories.

It is also relevant to note that
some of the stories were not presented within the year under review.

For instance, there were situations where stories published or aired in 2014 won awards when it should have been stories put up in 2013.

Next time,  the organisers should ensure that award winners are notified early  enough to enable them to come for the prizes
themselves.  

The GJA awards have gone beyond plaques and certificates,
sponsors must be encouraged to come up with more meaningful prizes such as cars, houses and insurance packages as  it pertains to other award schemes.

We must also focus on the situation where emoluments
of Journalists in some media houses are more on the exploitative side
than  rewarding.  

The GJA must serve as the true voice of its members and champion their cause in all endeavours.

 We say Ayekoo to all award winners.  To those who were not mentioned we say better luck
next time.

BY JUSTICE MINGLE,A JOURNALIST