Prize bungle hits media awards

THE credibility of the Misa Namibia Media awards took another knock yesterday when the event’s organisers realised that this year the awards had been dished out to the wrong winners – or non-winners – at a prize-giving ceremony in Windhoek on Saturday.

Some journalists who had walked off with prizes received phone calls from the organisers to inform them that they actually had been given the wrong awards – or should not have been tapped with any prize at all. Seven out of the event’s 12 print media categories are affected.Thirteen of the 36 prizes that were given to journalists in the print media categories ended up in the wrong hands.The two main awards – that of Journalist of the Year, which went to freelance journalist John Grobler, and Photographer of the Year, which was won by Republikein photographer Francois Poolman – were not affected.According to the organiser of the event, Ferdinand Tjombe, when he again went over judging records on Sunday he realised that a wrong list of winners had been used with the previous evening’s event.That list, he said, was compiled when the event’s organisers had not yet received the scores from one of the judges assessing entries.When that judge’s scores were received, they were incorporated in an updated list of winners – which however ended up not being the one used for the event on Saturday.Tjombe said as soon as he realised the error, he decided it would be best to admit that a mistake had been made and to contact recipients of prizes to have the situation corrected.”I’m accepting the blame,” he said.”But the credibility of the scores and the way it was judged is beyond reproach.It’s just that we worked off the wrong list.”In a statement issued by Misa Namibia late yesterday afternoon, the organisation said it would “undertake a thorough investigation into this matter and will avail, both in electronic and hard copy, the score cards used by judges, for verification”.According to the statement, Tjombe had “confirmed that there was a mix-up in some categories”.”Misa Namibia also assures all journalists that the organisation will continue to advocate for excellence in journalism and recognise their contributions,” the statement said.One of the dispossessed former winners, New Era’s Frederick Philander, was none too pleased with the turn of events, which he termed “embarrassing”, yesterday.He said he however had decided not to return the N$1 000 in prize money that came with his initial second-place finish in the Education & Youth Development category.He would instead give the money to a charity of his choice, he said.Most of the changes that were made in the award of prizes were with the second and third prizes that were given in the various categories.In three categories, though, the first prize winners were changed yesterday.In the Best Reporter: General News category, in which Republikein’s Dani Booysen was announced as the overall winner on Saturday, the new winner is Des Erasmus, also of Republikein, and Booysen has been bumped down to third place.With the changed allocation of prizes Booysen however got a runner-up prize, in the Education & Youth Development Category, and a third prize in the Political Journalism category.The initial winner of the Business-Finance Journalism category, Frederico Links, was also bumped off the top spot in that category, which has now been awarded to Robin Sherbourne, who also won the Economic Journalism category on Saturday.Links was the winner in the Tourism-Environmental Journalism and Education & Youth Development categories as well on Saturday.In the Best Community Reporter Category, in which Jeremiah Ndjoze of Informante was announced to have been the winner on Saturday, the Allgemeine Zeitung’s Dirk Heinrich has now been designated as the correct winner.Seven out of the event’s 12 print media categories are affected.Thirteen of the 36 prizes that were given to journalists in the print media categories ended up in the wrong hands.The two main awards – that of Journalist of the Year, which went to freelance journalist John Grobler, and Photographer of the Year, which was won by Republikein photographer Francois Poolman – were not affected.According to the organiser of the event, Ferdinand Tjombe, when he again went over judging records on Sunday he realised that a wrong list of winners had been used with the previous evening’s event.That list, he said, was compiled when the event’s organisers had not yet received the scores from one of the judges assessing entries.When that judge’s scores were received, they were incorporated in an updated list of winners – which however ended up not being the one used for the event on Saturday.Tjombe said as soon as he realised the error, he decided it would be best to admit that a mistake had been made and to contact recipients of prizes to have the situation corrected.”I’m accepting the blame,” he said.”But the credibility of the scores and the way it was judged is beyond reproach.It’s just that we worked off the wrong list.”In a statement issued by Misa Namibia late yesterday afternoon, the organisation said it would “undertake a thorough investigation into this matter and will avail, both in electronic and hard copy, the score cards used by judges, for verification”.According to the statement, Tjombe had “confirmed that there was a mix-up in some categories”.”Misa Namibia also assures all journalists that the organisation will continue to advocate for excellence in journalism and recognise their contributions,” the statement said.One of the dispossessed former winners, New Era’s Frederick Philander, was none too pleased with the turn of events, which he termed “embarrassing”, yesterday.He said he however had decided not to return the N$1 000 in prize money that came with his initial second-place finish in the Education & Youth Development category.He would instead give the money to a charity of his choice, he said.Most of the changes that were made in the award of prizes were with the second and third prizes that were given in the various categories.In three categories, though, the first prize winners were changed yesterday.In the Best Reporter: General News category, in which Republikein’s Dani Booysen was announced as the overall winner on Saturday, the new winner is Des Erasmus, also of Republikein, and Booysen has been bumped down to third place.With the changed allocation of prizes Booysen however got a runner-up prize, in the Education & Youth Development Category, and a third prize in the Political Journalism category.The initial winner of the Business-Finance Journalism category, Frederico Links, was also bumped off the top spot in that category, which has now been awarded to Robin Sherbourne, who also won the Economic Journalism category on Saturday.Links was the winner in the Tourism-Environmental Journalism and Education & Youth Development categories as well on Saturday.In the Best Community Reporter Category, in which Jeremiah Ndjoze of Informante was announced to have been the winner on Saturday, the Allgemeine Zeitung’s Dirk Heinrich has now been designated as the correct winner.