African journo awards extends deadline

The competition, now in its 17th year, also announced the panel of independent judges. The judging panel include: Zipporah Musau, managing editor of magazines at The Standard Group Ltd in Kenya; Ikechukwu Amaechi, editor of Daily Independent in Nigeria; Amadou Mahtar Ba, CEO of African Media Initiative; Jean-Paul Gérouard, deputy editor-in-chief at France 3 TV.

Others judges include: Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief at City Press, South Africa; Joel Kibazo, journalist and media consultant; Arlindo Lopes, general manager: regulatory and corporate, Angola and Mozambique, MultiChoice Africa Ltd; and Kim Norgaard, CNN bureau chief, South Africa. CNN's sports anchor, Pedro Pinto will assist in the judging of the Portuguese general news category.

Finalists' programme

Finalists in the 2012 competition will participate in a finalists' programme that will include a media forum and networking opportunities with senior journalists, editors, business leaders and media owners from across the continent, culminating in a gala awards ceremony. All finalists receive a cash prize and each category winner also receives a laptop and printer. The CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2012 will receive an additional cash prize and will have the opportunity to participate in the CNN Journalism Fellowship at CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, US.

Previous winner

Fatuma Noor, who worked for The Star Kenya, was awarded the top prize at the 2011 Awards ceremony. Fatuma won for her investigative three-part series on the 'Al-Shabaab', which was chosen from among 1407 entries from 42 nations across the African continent.

Noor said, "Winning the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards was the best platform for my career. With the award came the best opportunities, and I have been able to do so much more since. It was a great opportunity meeting other brilliant journalists, all of us working towards telling our own important stories. The award is a dream for any African journalist."

Categories

From these category winners, judges will choose the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2012.

Categories include:

• Arts & Culture Award
  
• Digital Journalism Award
  
• The Coca-Cola Company Economics and Business Award
  
• Environment Award
  
• Free Press Africa Award
  
• The HIV/AIDS Reporting Award
  
• Mohamed Amin Photographic Award
  
• MSD Health & Medical Award
  
• Print General News Award
  
• Radio General News Award
  
• Sport Award
  
• Television Features Award
  
• Television News Bulletin Award
  
• Tourism Award
  
• Francophone General News Awards
  
• Portuguese Language General News Award

The competition is open to African nationals who are professional journalists including freelancers across print, television, internet, photographic and radio.

To make the entry process more accessible to journalists across Africa, a new initiative this year is the introduction of the Awards' online entry form. Journalists can access this at www.cnn.com/africanawards.