Seychellois journalists urged to take part in SADC media awards |10 March 2014

Seychellois journalists working for the print and broadcast media are being urged to take part in the 2014 SADC Media Awards competition.

Organised by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the award is open to people working in print journalism, radio journalism, television journalism and photojournalism.

Prospective entrants are invited to submit their entries accompanied by proof of their nationality to the national adjudication committee (NAC) in their respective countries.

The entries should have been published/broadcast between January and December the year preceding the awards (2013) by a registered and/or authorised media house or agency or carried on a website of a registered and/or authorised media house or agency in any of the SADC member states.

The themes of the entries to be submitted for the competition must be on issues and activities promoting regional integration in the SADC region, i.e. infrastructure, economy, water, culture, sports, agriculture, etc.

All media practitioners who are SADC nationals may enter the competition, except those in institutions contracted by the SADC and the SADC secretariat staff.

All works entering the competition should be in one of the SADC working languages – English, Portuguese, French and any national indigenous language of the SADC region and should be submitted as they were published/broadcast (newspaper cutting, websites, magazines, audio CDs or video cassettes/DVDs, newsletters;

Entries are invited from the following categories:

i. Print journalism:  comprising features/articles published in newspapers, newsletters, website and magazines. Print Journalism submissions should have a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 2,000.

 ii. Radio journalism:  comprising broadcast material.
 
 iii. Television journalism:  comprising televised material.

Broadcast material should have a minimum duration of one minute and a maximum duration of one hour and all broadcast material should be accompanied by a transcript in any of the languages indicated in above rule.

iv. Photojournalism:  comprising published pictures with a caption.

Photographic entries should have a minimum of a single photo, a pictorial of up to 10 photos and an album of up to 20 photos.

All entries must be submitted to the national adjudication committee not later than March 31, 2014.
 
Submissions must be made on the Sadc Media Award entry form and should contain full contact details of the entrant, including, passport-size photograph, physical address, telephone and, where applicable, fax number and e-mail address.

Entries will be initially screened and judged by the national adjudication committee in each member state, which will select the best entry in each of the four categories to be forwarded to the regional adjudication committee (Rac), through the SADC secretariat not later than May 31, 2014.   

Selection of the best regional entries will be decided upon by the Rac and the decision of this committee shall be final.

Winners will be announced and will receive their prizes during the 34th SADC summit of heads of state and government and each category winner will receive US $2,000. The monetary prizes will be accompanied by a certificate signed by the SADC chairperson.

The prizes will be paid directly to the winner.  In the case of a winner being unable to attend the ceremony, SADC will make arrangements to give the prize in his/her home country. The Rac reserves the right not to award a prize in any of the categories if the entries do not satisfactorily meet the competition requirements. In such an event, the Rac may award such prizes to deserving entries that may score second or third places in the other categories.

Further information and entry forms are obtainable from the national adjudication committees and SADC media coordinators in each member state.  

In the absence of any SADC media representative in Seychelles, local journalists who wish to take part in the contest are asked to contact Kaleni Hiyalwa on telephone number +061 2832670, email addresses khiyalwa@gmail.com and khiyalwa@mict.gov.na