South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) has recognized five community radio stations this year that have shown determination and bravery in providing service to their communities.
The stations, Alex FM; Westside FM 98.9 MHz; Mams Radio; Intokozo FM, and Kasie FM 97.1 were recognized on Saturday, August 14, at the gala dinner of the 23rd Nat Nakasa Journalism Awards, sponsored by Pan-African financial services group, Sanlam.
The award recognizes journalists who have shown courage and tenacity in the face of enormous challenges and displayed a commitment to serving the people of South Africa with integrity, resisted censorship, and striven for truth and accuracy in their reporting.
This year’s top winner is Styli Charalambous, the CEO, and co-founder of Daily Maverick. The publication since its inception has become one of the leading online and a printed publications in South Africa, in part because of the commitment and passion of Styli, a former chartered accountant.
He said he is now “fully reformed and passionate about the media business”.
CEO and Cofounder of Daily Maverick, Styli Charalambous
This year’s Nat Nakasa Award Community Media category was presented to Nathan Geffen and Raymond Joseph, for their work in the community news agency GroundUp.
The relatively small community news agency since 2018, has persisted with a series of investigations into the NLC that uncovered corruption, maladministration, and nepotism.
According to SANEF, the news agency’s work in general — and its reporting on the lotteries scandal in particular— provides a sterling example of good community journalism in action. The effort was started ten years ago as a donor-funded community news agency focusing on social justice issues, by Editor Geffen.
Also, the coveted Stephen Wrottesley Award was presented to Mahlatse Mahlase, chairperson of SANEF 2016 – 2020 and its current secretary-general, for her passion, professionalism, and commitment to SANEF and her dedication to media freedom and ethics.
According to organizers, Mahlase embodies what SANEF stands for: an unwavering passion for media freedom and a deep commitment to make South Africa a better and more equal place for its citizens, through journalism.
She steered SANEF to financial and organizational stability and has led the forum in its principled campaign against prevailing hate speech and online abuse against journalists. She championed SANEF’s activism to push back against the abuse of particularly women journalists by politicians and online trolls. Some of the reasons she was nominated by her peers, for the recognition.
SANEF Media Relief Fund awarded the prizes.