Reporters asked to vie for Comesa media awards |07 May 2013

The scheme is an annual event that seeks to boost professional reporting on the activities and regional integration of the Common Market for the Eastern and Southern Africa for which she is the desk officer for Seychelles.

This year’s contest will be the fifth such event to be organised by Comesa and details related to the competition are on website www.comesa.int, she said.
“Entries should be based on work published or broadcast by a recognised media institution in any of the Comesa member states,” she said, urging entrants to forward their chosen entries by July 30, 2013 for onward submission to Comesa.

In its invitation, the organisation says the entries should be works published or broadcast by a recognised media institution in any of the Comesa member states.
Only journalists who are Comesa nationals shall be eligible to enter the competition while staff from its secretariat and journalists whose media organisations are contracted by Comesa shall not be eligible for the award.

“The competition is open to individuals and not media institutions or organisations,” says Comesa, which adds that all works entered for the competition should be in one of its working languages – Arabic, English or French – and submitted as published or broadcast in the form of newspaper, magazine cuttings, online publications or audio and video cassettes.

Articles from print journalist should be between 600 and 3,000 words while radio and television reporters should send documentaries or discussion programmes of between 15 and 45 minutes’ duration.
Radio and TV entries should be accompanied by a brief written summary of what the documentary is about.

Entries should be authenticated through signature and official stamp by the editor or head of the media organisation which employs the entrant.

Entries must be on the prescribed entry form available on the Comesa website. The first prize winner will get US $2,000 and a certificate signed by the secretary general of Comesa.

For further details, journalists interested may contact Comesa’s public relations officer through post office box number 30051, Lusaka, Zambia or telephone number +260 211 229725/32 or through email: pr@comesa.int.

Comesa has recently stepped up its efforts for greater visibility aimed at making people more aware of what it stands for while drawing more media support for its efforts.

“Comesa is like the European Union or the East African Community and not a trading block as many people wrongly think, and the media needs to let people know this,” said a member of its secretariat when the organisation recently ran a workshop for journalists from the region in Uganda, during which a media team was formed where each region is represented by a senior journalist.

The Indian Ocean region’s representative is Comorian Saminya Bounou who sits on its steering committee representing her country, Mauritius, Seychelles and Madagascar.

Ms Bounou – who was voted into the committee by the 45 journalists at the Kampala meeting – yesterday wrote to Nation urging Seychellois reporters interested in the environment to contact her through email: saminya2006@yahoo.fr, to help boost the region’s team.

The Uganda meeting recognised former Comesa media award winners who were present at the conference.