Winners of awards in this year’s Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards are “assets to the journalism industry”. Convener of judges, Paula Fray, said the winning works “displayed passion and substantial editorial experience. They have understood the mind and heart of their audience”.
The awards, hosted by Print and Digital Media South Africa (PDMSA), celebrate excellence in South African journalism.
“We were very pleased with this year’s entries. The submissions received revealed the journalists’ passion and commitment to their industry, making both their industry and respective publications proud. On behalf of PDMSA, I would like to congratulate every single one of them on their achievement,” said CEO Ingrid Louw.
This year, winners were selected from 683 submissions across 14 award categories. A large portion of submissions received were from ‘Feature Writing, with 120 entries, 82 entries in Hard News, and 78 entries in News Photography.
The Star’s Antoine de Ras scooped the Newspaper Journalist of the Year award for his Oscar Pistorius coverage. De Ras also won best News Photograph for his photo, ‘Oscar Weeps’. Pieter du Toit, Sonja Carstens & Celeste Louw from Beeld won story of the year for breaking the story of Pistorius killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, ‘How Oscar Pistorius change Beeld forever. – it started with a tweet’. Beeld’s Piet Matipa won young journalist of the year.
The Witness and the Sunday Times shared the Investigative Journalism award this year. Jonathan Erasmus, Mhlabunzima Memela and Rowan Philp of The Witness won the award for their investigation of Jay Singh, the developer of the Tongaat Mall. Rob Rose, Stephan Hofstatter and Mzilikazi Wa Afrika were vindicated in their investigation of disgraced former communications minister, Dina Pule, with their story ‘It’s Official: Dina Pule Lied’.
The Cape Times Tony Weaver won Column of the Year for his Man Friday columns.Angelique Serrao, Botho Molosankwe, Kristen Van Schie, Lebogang Seale & Kevin Ritchie of The Star won the Hard News category for their series, ‘Deadly Valentine’. The Star’s Makhudu Sefara won Newspaper Editor of the Year.
Fray said the 2014 award submissions were competitive and had improved year on year. “We are delighted that both the publications and journalists continue to see value in being crowned as Standard Bank Sikuvile award winners,” she said.
Louw extended her gratitude to the sponsor of the awards, Standard Bank, adding, “Our partnership continues to ensure that our journalists carry on playing their role in our democracy.”
All the winners:
IMAGE: Deaan Vivier / Twitter
