Key Correspondent Owen Nyaka has been awarded ‘Best Paediatric and HIV Journalist of the Year’ by the Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).
Key Correspondent Owen Nyaka has been awarded ‘Best Paediatric and HIV Journalist of the Year’ by the Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).
Nyaka was the only freelance online reporter among the winners, who received their awards on 3 May, as part of the celebrations to mark World Press Freedom Day.
“God is mysterious. I will always cherish the fact that I am the first winner under this newly created category of the MISA awards, which has been introduced to uplift the quality and standards of reporting on paediatric and adolescent HIV, including prevention and treatment. I will keep on writing until no child has AIDS,” said Nyaka.
Award-winning story
Nyaka worked with the Key Correspondents’ editorial team to produce his award-winning story, which was also published on Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The story hightlights the plight of a 14-year-old girl who walks more than 30 kilometres every month, crossing rivers without bridges, in order to access free HIV antiretroviral treatment. Other than the distance, the adolescent has to deal with harassment, ridicule, and gossip from her peers both at in and out of school.
According to the judges, they were looking for a number of factors in stories, including impact, analysis and investigation, courage, originality, gender awareness and consistency.
Improving journalism in Malawi
More than 440 entries were submitted to the 2014/15 MISA media awards, which had 28 categories, 11 of which cater for both print and electronic stories.
Chief judge Wisdom Chimgwede, a seasoned and award winning journalist, spoke during a gala dinner at the Grand Palace Hotel in Malawi’s Mzuzu city, about the standards of journalism in Malawi.
“Most of the stories had glaring editing errors and showed lack of guidance from seniors in the newsrooms. We need to mentor our reporters for their stories to have depth and analysis,” says Chimgwede.
Reporting on development issues
Nyaka, who has been an outstanding reporter since he joined the Key Correspondents (KC) team, said: “Special thanks should go to the KC team. We are all winners and I would like to encourage my fellow KC’s across the world to work extra hard on issues that matters to them, bringing out the voices in their reporting of those who don’t usually get an opportunity to be heard, whilst remaining objective.”
Nyaka received a trophy and a state of the art HP Laptop for his award, which was sponsored by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He said the prize would make it easier for him to work.
The awards included eight categories under the Millennium Development Goals, which were supported by the United Nations in Malawi. Other awards included Blogger, Columnist and Talk Show Host of the Year, supported by the United States Embassy, and Best Farm Radio Programme of the Year Award among others. All the awards were introduced to appreciate the critical role that journalists play in shaping public opinion and promoting national development.
Apart from his role as a Key Correspondent, Nyaka is also a regional correspondent for AIDSPAN, which is an independent observer of the Global Fund to fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He is also a Citizen News Service Media fellow and International Planned Parenthood Federation Media Fellow finalist on Reporting HIV and sexual and reproductive health linkages, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
COMMENTS
Congratulations Owen thanks for work done.