Times Of Swaziland: TIMES JOURNO SCOOPS INTERNATIONAL AWARD

TIMES JOURNO SCOOPS INTERNATIONAL AWARD
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BY PHEPHILE MOTAU on 03/12/2013 05:31:00


MBABANE - Times of Swaziland Community reporter Sithembile Hlatshwayo won a
prestigious regional award on reporting on children.
She won the Best Print News category for regional Children Reporting at a
ceremony held at the Taj Pamodzi Hotel in Zambia on Friday. The awards were
hosted by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Office in
collaboration with Save the Children Zambia. She also won E10 000 to go with her
award.
Hlatshwayo won the award for a story titled ’15-year-old virgin discovers he
is HIV positive’. She said the judges were appreciating the good work of
journalists across the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
“They were encouraging us to continue writing children’s stories and portray
them as heroes and not victims,” Hlatshwayo said.
Two journalists from Malawi and one from Zimbabwe were also awarded for their
efforts. She was the only Swazi journalist to be awarded during the ceremony.
The awards were presented by Zambia’s Minister of Information and
Broadcasting, Mwansa Kapeyo.
Hlatshwayo said they got to tour MUV TV, which specialised on children’s views
as they could contribute positively to a country’s economy.
She said she felt humbled by the award, and it was the best thing to ever happen
in her career as a journalist.
“I believe it came through my hard work and pushing myself to the edge. Being
recognised in the SADC region is very big to me, and I will continue to work
harder,” she said.
Times Managing Editor Martin Dlamini said they were very proud and happy for
Hlatshwayo’s achievement. He thanked the institutions which initiated the
recognition towards the media and the role they played in bringing out social
injustice.
Dlamini said to give incentives to the media helped society in general as they
did not have the platform to raise issues. He said the greatest beneficiaries
were those affected by social injustices.
“How we do it is important and this is where the quality of stories comes in.
We are happy to live up to the high standards to the point that we get
international recognition, and I would like to encourage others to emulate this
achievement,” he said.