. Wins seven out of 12 categories, including Newspaper of the Year
With seven out of the twelve categories of awards for the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) held in Lagos on Saturday,November 23, The Punch newspaper has maintained her dominance of the Nigeria print media.
The Punch achieved this feat at the just concluded 22nd Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) created to celebrate outstanding media practitioners.
Among categories won by The Punch was the Newspaper of the Year. National Mirror and The Nation were runners up.
Other prizes won by PUNCH staff were: Editor of the Year, Press Reporter of the Year, Judicial Reporter of the Year, the Action Photography award, Best Editorial Writing award and the Informed Commentary award.
Awards in full:
Ayo Olukotun of Punch (Informed Commentary); Ifenyinwa Ezepue of the Voice of Nigeria, Lagos (Radio Drama); Ade Adesomoju of Punch (Judicial Reporting); Chukwuemeka Emenike of National Mirror (Editorial Cartooning) and Isioma Madike of National Mirror (Development
Reporting).
Action Photography Award went to Olusegun Bakare of Punch, with a picture, entitled: A physically-challenged Man being assisted at a protest in Lagos, published on January 12, last year.
Sina Fadare of National Mirror won the Agricultural Reporting category.TV Reporting Award went to Adebayo Bodunrin of AIT, with the story: Subsidy War, broadcast on October 2 and 3, last year.
Solomon Adebayo of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) won the Radio Reporting category, Angela Unachukwu of the Anambra Broadcasting Service, Awka, won the TV Documentary category.
Olatunji Ololade (The Nation) won the Political Reporting category, with the story: The Ugly
Manifestations of Tribal Politics in Nigeria and Friendly Reporting category with the story: Children of War.
By Kekechi Amakoh
The CEO of Diamond Publications Ltd, organisers of the award , Mr. Lanre Idowu, in his remarks, lamented the decline in the quality of reports in the media.
He also noted that the awards for this year were fewer the reduced due to poor quality of
entries for the some categories.
There were no awards for sports reporting, health reporting, news magazine of the year, television commercial, radio presenting, press advert and radio commercial.
“DAME does not engage in a jamboree. It is not a chieftaincy title. It is something to be earned and treasured.
“From the hoard of entries, we did not find any that merits a DAME in the Insurance category. We announced 30 categories, today we’re giving out only 16,” Idowu said.