During the fifth annual Highway Africa Conference held at Rhodes University last week, top journalists and new media news organisations were honoured for their contribution to the African digital renaissance.
The event is regarded as the leading conference for new media journalists in Africa.
Awards were made in three major categories: corporates, individuals and NGOs.
Taking top spot in the corporate category was SABC News on Demand, a joint venture between SABC News and Zimbabwe-based Econet Wireless International. The service provides regularly updated audio news via telephone. SABC News on Demand was launched by Special News Services in August last year, to broaden the SABC`s reach in Africa by making news more accessible. The service has proved to be a popular source of daily news about Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa for thousands of beleaguered Zimbabweans. Other nominees for this award were the Carte Blanche Web site (www.mnet.co.za/carteblanche) and All Africa.com, an American-run Web site (www.allafrica.com).
In the Individual category, Timothy Kalyegira of Africa Almanac (www.africaalmanac.com) was named the winner. The judges felt that even though the site was inconsistent in terms of quality - probably reflecting the difficulties of running it as a one-man show - the idea was worth rewarding. The runner-up in this category was Cairo Live (www.cairolive.com).
Also short-listed was Africa Media Online (www.africamediaonline.com).
In the NGO category, health e-news service health-e (www.health-e.org.sa) was chosen as the winner. The judges described health-e as a "superb health-focused news agency producing content for several platforms, using the Web and e-mail to pull it all together".
The runner-up in this category was the Integrated Regional Information Networks site for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/index.phtml).
Share
