Nigeria’s
most widely read newspaper, The
PUNCH, reaffirmed its leadership position in the country’s media
industry as it clinched the Newspaper of the Year Award at the 2016 edition of
the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence.
The
Editor of The PUNCH,
Mr. Martin Ayankola, was also named as the Editor of the Year at the annual
awards, which held at the Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos on Sunday.
The PUNCH edged out other newspapers, which
contended for the coveted Newspaper of the Year award by riding on its record
20 nominations across 12 categories.
The
newspaper had also won both awards in the 2015 edition of DAME.
The PUNCH Cartoonist, Bennet Omeke, won in the
editorial cartoon category with his entry titled: ‘Entry and Exit’, published
in The PUNCH
of May 20, 2015, ahead of Azeez Ozi-Sanni of The
Nation and Albert Ohams of Ministerial Screening.
Folashade
Adebayo of The PUNCH
won the prize for Conflict-sensitive reporting with her story entitled,
‘Insurgency: Killings, maimings rob North-East of school teachers.’
A
Sub-Assistant Editor with the Saturday
PUNCH, Mr. Dayo Oketola; and a correspondent of the same
publication, Gbenro Adeoye, were runners up.
Eric
Dumo of Saturday PUNCH
won in the sports reporting category with his story, ‘Hooliganism: The dark
side of Nigeria’s football league,’ published on November 14, 2015 edition of Saturday PUNCH.
Motunrayo
Joel of Sunday PUNCH
won the prize for investigating reporting with her story: ‘Ovum trading: Inside
Nigeria’s multimillion naira human egg business,’ ahead of Tobi Aworinde, also
of Sunday PUNCH, and
Fisayo Soyombo of The
Cable.
Tolu
Ogunlesi, an ex-columnist with The
PUNCH, won the prize for informed commentary with his article:
‘Saving Lagosians of Badia East,’ published in The PUNCH of October 26, 2015. He won the
award ahead of Henry Boyo of The
PUNCH and Gbenga Omotoso of The
Nation.
Nike
Popoola of The PUNCH
was a runner-up in the business reporting category won by Chikodi Okereocha of The Nation, with his
March 16, 2015 story titled: ‘Devaluation: Harsh climate for manufacturers,
workers.’
Ramon
Oladimeji of The PUNCH
was the first-runner up for the judicial reporting award, behind Joseph Jibuze
of The Nation,
who won the award with his story titled: ‘How to revive the judiciary. Oketola
emerged the second-runner up in the category.
Daily Trust was adjudged the Child Friendly Medium for
2016, with The PUNCH, The
Guardian and ThisDay
as runners-up.
The
DAME Life Time Achievement awards were conferred on Mr. Dan Agbese formerly of
the New Nigerian
Newspapers and Newswatch;
and Mr. Kevin Ejiofor, formerly of the Federal
Radio Corporation of Nigeria.
The
organisers of the DAME, stated, “In emerging The Newspaper of the Year, The PUNCH demonstrates
its clear leadership.
“Aside
from winning five gold medals or first-place positions in Conflict-sensitive
Reporting, Informed Commentary, Investigative Reporting, Sports Reporting and
Editorial Cartooning, The PUNCH
has record 20 nominations in 12 of the 14 print journalism prizes on offer.
“It
is a demonstration of its breadth of coverage, enterprise of its reporters, the
diligence of its editors and the organisational seriousness attached to
competitions such as DAME.”
Source:The
Punch
Tags
Society