Friday, March 29, 2024

Zambian Journalist scoops CNN Multichoice African Journalism Award in HIV/AIDS

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One of Zambia’s finalists in the CNN MultiChoice African Journalism Awards Charity Mutinta Mboozi on Saturday scooped first position in the HIV/AIDS Journalism category at the competition’s grand finale in Cape Town, South Africa.

Charity Mutinta Mboozi of the Catholic Media Services TV studios, was among 25
finalists from 40 African countries including ZANIS television producer Wamunyima
Muwana who competed in various journalism categories.

The entries were chosen from a total of 1,670 entries from 40 African countries.

She received the award at this year’s CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2007 Awards
ceremony held at the prestigious Table Bay hotel in Cape Town, South Africa over the
weekend.

Zambia News and Information Services, ZANIS television producer Wamunyima Muwana was
also one of the finalists in the competition.

Ms Mbozi who came from the Catholic Media Services television studios entered her
documentary entitled “Through my Eyes” in the competition.

The award winning production looks at the impact of HIV/AIDS on a family and
community through the eyes of a 12 year old boy who lost five members of his family
to the epidemic.

Mr Muwana’s documentary on the Kuomboka ceremony of the Lozi people of Western
province, which was one of the entries in the competition, also received high
acclaim from eminent African journalists who graced the ceremony in Cape Town.

Zambia’s Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet Robert Mataka and United Nations Special
Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa Elizabeth Mataka attended the prize giving ceremony in
Cape Town.

Others were ZANIS Director Patrick Jabani and ZNBC Director General Joseph Salasini.

The overall top prize in the competition was won by Uganda’s Richard Kavuma who
works for the Weekly Observer in that country.

Kavuma entered his eight-part series of articles that assessed Uganda’s performance
in the attainment of the Millenium Development Goals, MDGs.

Kavuma’s overall prize comprises a substantial cash prize, a visit to the CNN Centre
in Atlanta, Georgia with complimentary flights courtesy of South African Airways.

Meanwhile, ZANIS Director Patrick Jabani has urged Zambian journalists to strive for
excellence in their work so that they compete favourably at continental and global
level.

Mr Jabani said Zambian journalists should be dedicated to telling the Zambian story
well to the outside world on various issues and developments taking place on the
continent.

He noted with regret that Zambia was one of the most starved countries in Sub-Sahara
Africa in terms of information and attributed the situation to laissez-faire
attitude among
journalists.

Mr Jabani also disclosed that Multi-Choice Zambia in conjunction with ZANIS,  ZNBC,
Celtel , Zambia Centre for Communication Programmes, ZCCP and other stakeholders,
will hold a function to honour the two Zambian finalists Mr Muwana and Ms Mboozi who
participated in this year’s competition which was climaxed over the weekend in Cape
Town.

He said the idea is to see how the Cape Town ceremony could be replicated in Zambia
in an effort to recognise and motivate  the local journalism ingenuity.

4 COMMENTS

  1. #1.Thats the downside of this otherwise historic award. I hope the late comers planning a party for the two finalists will at least remember that for it to be a truly Zambian celebration we too need to see the two stories.

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