Allied Newspapers win six journalism awards

Two journalists, a photographer, a cartoonist and a travel correspondent from Allied Newspapers Limited won six awards between them in this year's Malta Journalism Awards, leaving all competition far behind.

Herman Grech won the award for journalist of the year entitling him to a placement with an English newspaper. Mr Grech also won the award in the print journalism category (news) for an interview with an Eritrean refugee, the story about the Moon rock that was stolen from an Mdina museum and another interview with the Maltese family who lost a relative in the tsunami. Ariadne Massa won the print journalism award (features) for her articles in Pink magazine while Vanessa Macdonald placed second with her articles appearing in The Times Business section. Chris Sant Fournier won the press photography award for his work appearing in The Times, with Darrin Zammit Lupi placing second. Maurice Tanti Burlò won the press cartoons category again for The Times, while Mona Farrugia, correspondent of The Sunday Times, won the travel journalism award.

The winner of the Gold Award was Paul Carachi. He "will be remembered as the person who started a revolution in the field of journalism, with the introduction of the tabloid style and investigative reporting, with an emphasis on a strong human element," said Prof. Guido de Marco, chairman of the Gold Award jury.

Mr Carachi began working for Allied Malta Newspapers as a sales boy and ended his employment with the company as an established journalist. Since then, he has occupied various roles in the field, as well as being elected to Parliament in 1966 and 1971 as a Labour MP.

The Malta Journalism Awards this year covered eleven categories. The other six were broadcast script, broadcast film, sports journalism, e-journalism, cultural tourism and L-ilsien Malti fil-Gurnalizmu (best use of Maltese language in journalism).

The broadcast script award was won by Julia Farrugia (Super 1 Radio) while the broadcast film award went to Alvin Scicluna (TVM). Charles Camenzuli (Net TV) won the sports journalism award and Pierre Mejlak (MaltaMedia) won the e-journalism award. The cultural tourism award was won by John Manduca (Treasures of Malta) while the best use of Maltese language in journalism award went to Charles Camenzuli.

Jury chairman Victor Formosa said the Institute of Maltese Journalists should be satisfied with the record number of submissions, 54. The fact that there were more categories this year could have been the cause, he said.

According to the jury report, the level was once again good. In almost all categories there was unanimous agreement on the winners among the members of the jury.

Photography had made giant strides, while more submissions in the caricatures sector were expected, Mr Formosa said.

The submissions in the features section, the most interesting, were of a very high standard and the choice was difficult, while the level of the travel journalism section was not as expected.

Institute chairman Malcolm Naudi said a lot of the quality work that appeared in the local media over the last 15 years would not have been produced if it were not for the awards.

The institute was in talks with the authorities on the rights of the media for journalists to be able to do their jobs without obstacles and have access to information, he said, adding that it was against discrimination in media briefings.

Mr Naudi paid tribute to the three colleagues who passed away this year: Alfred Giglio, Julian Manduca and Julian Zammit.

The Malta Journalism Awards ceremony will be broadcast on Education 22 today at 7 p.m.