Media release 

05 May 2020 

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) announces the application date for the lsu Elihle Awards. This year’s applications will open on the 15th of May 2020.

Translated from IsiZulu to mean “Great Idea”, the Isu Elihle Awards aim to encourage fresh reporting and insightful investigations that seek to give children a voice and highlight the various issues they face across our continent.This is done by inviting journalists from across Africa to submit original child-centred news story ideas for publication or broadcasting in mainstream news media.

Story ideas can be targeted at any mainstream news medium such as TV, Radio or Online. The top six story ideas will be selected and announced during an AWARDS ceremony. The journalists behind these will each receive guaranteed financial support of ZAR 10 000. MMA will also offer support to the finalists to develop their concepts. The final stories will be ranked once they have been published or broadcast, and the final cash prizes will be awarded: ZAR 25 000 (Overall Winner); ZAR 15 000 (2nd place); ZAR 10 000 (Third Place).

Last year’s winner, Thomas Bwire said, “I entered the awards because l wanted to scale up the voices of children because in our reporting as journalists in Kenya or even Africa we don’t tell stories about children in most cases we don’t even get to hear voices of children in our storytelling, we just focus so much about politics and other stories but leave out children in our storytelling”. We courage journalist to start thinking about their story ideas and how they can ethically report on issues faced by an African child while making sure that their voices are uplifted

For more details, terms and conditions visit the Competition Information page on the Isu Elihle Award’s website

For enquiries please contact:

Girlie Sibanda

girlies@mma.org.za

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