Posted by By Sun News Publishing on
The Sun multiple-award winner, Emmanuel Mayah, last weekend in Accra, won the CNN Multichoice African Journalist Award 2008.
The Sun multiple-award winner, Emmanuel Mayah, last weekend in Accra, won the CNN Multichoice African Journalist Award 2008. The investigative Reporter emerged winner in the Environment category in a keen competition that had 1912 entries from a record 44 countries across Africa.
Mayah's winning story, an investigative piece titled The Silkworm Genocide (http://www.sunnewsonline.com/ webpages/news/national/2007/jan/20/national-20-01-2007-08.htm), tells the story of an endangered specie of silkworm, almost gone extinct as a result of mindless deforestation. Beyond the ghastly environmental activities, the story also captured the dying Aso-Oke weaving industry that has for centuries relied on yarn produced solely from cocoons of this endangered silkworm.
President John Kufuor of Ghana who presented the star prize of CNN Multichoice African Journalist 2008 to Zimbabean television Journalist, Hopewell Rugoho-Chin'ono for his story on HIV/AIDS, used the occasion to charge African journalist to ensure that opportunities for development are widespread and maximized across the continent.
In choosing Mayah as winner, the judges at an event held at the state Banquet Hall, Osu Castle, described the Environment category as the most fiercely contested.
Ferial Haffajee, one of the judges and Editor Mail and Guardian, South Africa, who read Mayah's citation, hailed The Silkworm Genocide as an elevated reportage on development journalism and one that brings a fresh perspective to official corruption with its far-reaching consequences on poor rural populations.
Tony Maddox, Executive Vice-President of CNN International, said 'the awards have become the pre-eminent prize honouring the best of what Africa has to offer, and the benchmark by which many African Journalists measure themselves."