The South African National Editor’s Forum (SANEF) is now accepting nominations for the Nat Nakasa Awards for Courageous Journalism.
SANEF is a non-profit organisation whose members are editors, senior journalists, and journalism trainers from all areas of South African media. They are committed to championing South Africa’s hard-won freedom of expression and promoting quality, ethics, and diversity in the South African media.
They promote excellence in journalism through fighting for media freedom, writing policy submissions, research, and education and training programmes.
The 2024 Nat Nakasa Awards for Courageous Journalism focuses on stories published in print or online or broadcast between June 2023 and June 2024:
– Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity.
– Nat Nakasa Award for Community Media
Nat Nakasa was a prominent journalist and writer who died in exile. This annual award recognises any media practitioner journalist or editor — who has:
Showed integrity and reported fearlessly.
Displayed a commitment to serving the people of South Africa despite insurmountable obstacles.
Resisted any censorship.
Showed courage in making information available to the South African public. Any combination of the above.
In an exclusive interview with SA POSITIVE NEWS SANEF Projects Manager Hopewell Radebe had this to say when asked about the Award’s mandate:
“Nat Nakasa became editor of Drum magazine and founded the classic literature magazine and wrote columns for the Rand Mail. Nakasa committed suicide in exile in the United States at the age of 28. Drawing on interview, newspapers, magazines, memoirs, government surveillance documents and personal papers, those articles aimed to fill in but also not to complicate Nakasa’s legacy.”
Hopewell Radebe continued… “SANEF and Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University decided to honour him and established the Nat Nakasa Awards for courageous Journalism.”
The awards started in 1998. Sometimes there are team of writers that win the award such as Daniel Steyn and Marecia Damons in 2023 for the Thabo Bester escape story – as well as Cebelihle Mbuyisa and Magnificent Mndebele in 2022 for keeping the story of the uprising in eSwatini for South African audiences. The award was also given to stalwart photojournalists Peter Magubane and Alf Kumalo.
The Awards are open to all journalists serving all media platforms from a community / national newspaper, magazine, or an electronic medium (including online publishers).
Nominations of deserving candidates/journalists can be done by members of the public, Editors, fellow journalists, and or their colleagues. Journalists can nominate themselves. Previous winners of this award are, however, not eligible for entry.
The winners are selected by a panel based on nominations submitted by the public. The judges include Peter Sullivan, Joe Thloloe and Crystal Onderson.
Please submit your nomination with a motivation of 300 words and a sample of or the body of work by close of business on Sunday 30 June 2024 via email: dzudzien@sanef.org.za
The winner of the Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity will receive R20 000 in prize money and a certificate.
The winner of the Nat Nakasa Award for Community Media will receive R10 000 in prize money and a certificate.
This year is dedicated to 30 years of democracy – looking at the role of media in speaking truth to power.
The winners will be announced at the Nat Nakasa Awards ceremony on 14 September 2024 in Durban.
Hopewell Radebe concluded the interview with SA POSITIVE NEWS by sharing his insights on the state of Journalism in South Africa.
“We are regarded as a country to be one of the freest on the continent. However, our readership is dwindling, it has gone down tremendously. We are also respected as an industry for brave coverage of News exposing corruption and being fair and balanced most of the time but not all the time”, said Radebe.
These awards are sponsored by Sanlam. To keep up with the Nat Nakasa Awards, follow @SAEditorsForum across all social media platforms
By Sinenzolo Mondi – Nduku
