With accustomed flourish, Nigeria’s most widely read newspaper, PUNCH, has again confirmed its preeminent position in the country’s newspaper industry.

At the 22nd Diamond Awards for Media Excellence awards in Lagos on Saturday, your darling newspaper swept all the top prizes, winning seven of the 12 available prizes and leaving only five for other newspapers to share.

PUNCH beat the National Mirror, which won three prizes in all, and The Nation, which won two, to emerge Newspaper of the Year. The top prizes won by PUNCH were Editor of the Year, Press Reporter of the Year, Judicial Reporter of the Year, the Action Photography award, Best Editorial Writing award and the Informed Commentary award.

PUNCH’s outstanding outing at the awards, an annual celebration of journalistic excellence, is reminiscent of the newspaper’s feats at all the country’s foremost journalism awards in the last four years.

PUNCH is the country’s current holder of the Newspaper of the Year and Editor of the Year prizes of the country’s two foremost journalistic awards – DAME and the Nigerian Media Merit Awards.

PUNCH had won DAME’s Newspaper of the Year award last year, and for the fourth time, after beating The Guardian and National Mirror to distant second and third positions respectively. In the same year, Nigeria’s most widely read newspaper also won the Newspaper of the Year prize at the Nigerian Media Merit Awards, for the second year in a row.

During the Saturday event, which started around 8pm at the Sheraton Lagos Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, DAME also gave lifetime achievement awards to two veteran journalists, Mr. Felix Adenaike and Mrs. Omobola Onajide.

Mr. Adenaike, one of the country’s most distinguished journalists, is a former Chief Executive Officer and Editor-in-Chief of the defunct Sketch newspapers, and also a former Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Tribune. Mrs. Onajide was the first Nigerian woman to work in a television newsroom and the first General Manager of the old Midwest Television.

PUNCH’s Controller, Publications, Mr. Adeyeye Joseph, the editor of the newspaper in 2012, the year reviewed, beat Steve Ayorinde, a former editor of the National Mirror, to win the Nigerian Guild of Editor’s Prize for Editor of the Year. Joseph had also won the prize last year.

The newspaper’s Editorial Board, which has won critical acclaim for its hard-hitting pro-people editorials won the Tunji Oseni Memorial Fund prize for Editorial Writing. Its winning entry was an editorial, ‘13 years of democracy and despair’, published on May 29, 2012. The prize came almost a year to the date that the newspaper’s editorial board had published one of the most shared and widely discussed editorials in the country in 2012.

The prescient editorial, Jonathan Spendthrift: Enough is Enough, had flayed the Goodluck Jonathan administration for its extravagance.

PUNCH’s serial award-winning journalist and Editor, Sunday PUNCH, Toyosi Ogunseye, won DAME’s Sam Amuka Media Fund prize for Press Reporter of the Year. Ogunseye’s winning entry was a three-part story titled, ‘The rich also cry: A tale of deaths and diseases in a heavily polluted upscale estate.” To clinch the prize, Ogunseye beat Sam Oluwalana of National Mirror and Lucas Olumuyiwa of Tell.

Earlier in the year, Ogunseye’s story had won the Health Prize in the CNN African Journalist of the Year awards held in South Africa. Only last month, Ogunseye had also emerged runner-up Best Young Journalist from the Developing World at the United Kingdom Foreign Press Association’s Media Awards.

Of the three journalists nominated for the DAME prize in Judicial Reporting, two were PUNCH journalists. They were PUNCH’s current outstanding employee of the year, Eniola Akinkuotu, and the newspaper’s Judiciary Correspondent, Adeyemi Adesomoju. But in the end it was Adesomoju, who picked up the Justice Omotayo Onalaja Prize for Judicial Reporting. Adesomoju’s winning entry was ‘One day in court, life in jail’ published on June 25, 2012. Akinkuotu, whom PUNCH had rewarded with a brand new car for his emergence as the company’s outstanding employee of the year, emerged first runner-up, beating Francis Famoroti of the National Mirror to third place.

PUNCH also had two nominations in the Action Photography category. The newspaper’s Photo Editor, Olusegun Bakare, and photojournalist, Adegoke Famadewa, were nominated alongside Ezekiel Adeparusi of the National Mirror.

However, it was Bakare’s photograph of a physically challenged man being assisted during the January 2012 subsidy protest in Lagos that won the prize. Famadewa emerged second runner-up with a June 1, 2012 shot of a tanker fire that killed two persons and razed 10 trailers.

Your newspaper also had two nominations in the Informed Commentary category. PUNCH’s Friday columnist, Prof. Ayo Olukotun, won the Alade Odunewu prize for Informed Commentary with his piece titled, ‘Wanted: An alternative national honours system’.

The newspaper’s popular Thursday columnist, Abimbola Adelakun, was second runner-up with her article, ‘Blame it on the culture of poverty” published on July 19, 2012.

PUNCH’s Kwara State correspondent, Success Nwogu, was nominated for the News Agency of Nigeria prize for Agriculture Reporting but he lost narrowly to Sina Fadare of the National Mirror.

Similarly, PUNCH cartoonist, Bennet Omeke, was the second runner-up in Editorial Cartooning category after losing out to Chukwuemeka Emenike of the National Mirror and Gabriel Erapi of the Daily Sun, who were the winner and the first runner-up respectively.

Ololade Olatunji of The Nation picked up two awards, the Anthony Enahoro Prize for political reporting, sponsored by Tell, and the UNICEF Child Friendly reporting prize. The Anthony Enahoro prize for Development Reporting, sponsored by Tony Iyare, went to Isioma Joseph of the National Mirror.

The Omobola Onajide prize for Television Reporter of the Year went to Adebayo Bodunrin of the Africa Independent Television for his work titled, ‘Subsidy War’. Superscreen’s Adenike Owoeye’s two entries in the category were first and second runner-up.

The CEO of Diamond Publications Ltd, Mr. Lanre Idowu, who dwelt on the state of the media in his remarks, said that DAME was designed to encourage media responsibility.

Idowu said DAME had some challenges but added that it would not sacrifice its integrity.

“We would not look for money from just anywhere. We would not look for money anyhow. The integrity of the brand must be protected because it is for professionals,” Idowu said.

He lamented that the quality of reporting by the current generation of journalists was on the decline. In order to address the ugly trend, Idowu said DAME was going to use the funds that were provided for the sponsorship of some categories for the training of journalists.

He said the affected categories would be those in which no winner emerged. He noted that there was no award for some categories this year because they lacked outstanding entries.

There were no awards for sports reporting, health reporting, news magazine of the year, television commercial, radio presenting, press advert and radio commercial.

Six women and 15 men served as judges at this year’s awards. They included the Head of the Department of Mass Communication, Caleb University, Prof. Nosa Owens-Ibie; Dr. Bisi Olawunmi of the Department of Mass Communication, Bowen University; Executive Secretary, Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria, Mr. Feyi Smith; a former Permanent Secretary and former editor at the Daily Times, Mrs. Agbeke Ogunsanwo; former Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Mr Femi Kusa; and Editorial Page Editor of the Sun, Mrs. Wale Sokunbi.

Others were a former Editor of Sunday Punch and Vanguard, Mr. Muyiwa Adetiba; a former Editor of Nigerian Tribune, Mr. Muda Ganiyu; ace photographers Tam Fiofori; Victor Agunbiade; Managing Director of Pulsar Advertising, Mr. Emiko Aruofor; Managing Director of Extrabold Consult, Mr Joseph Afolabi; former Managing Editor of Daily Times and columnist with TELL, Mr. Ben Lawrence; columnist, Ms Bunmi Sofola; former chairperson of Nigerian Association of Women Journalists, Lagos chapter, Mrs. Tinu Odugbemi; former editorial board member of Daily Champion, Ms. Victoria Ibanga; former Judicial Editor of the Guardian, Mr. Gbolahan Gbadamosi; veteran actor and broadcaster, Mr. Taiwo Obileye; former broadcaster, Ms. Effiom Asuquo; radio host, Mr. Jimi Disu; and Mrs. Nkechi Ileka, a trained education administrator.

Tolexander: Very sure the ProGej group will come here to rubbish the award!

Tolexander: Very sure the ProGej group will come here to rubbish the award!

Goddex: Punch is just doing dirty job for Asiwaju Progrethieves Congress. The fact tha The Nation comes second rubbishes this award. These two media outfits are very bias and merely thrive on sensational journalism.

I am not surprised anyway, The Republican Party in US also influence awards for Fox News and other of their media outfit. It's Politics.

At the 22nd Diamond Awards
for Media Excellence awards
in Lagos on Saturday, your
darling newspaper swept all
the top prizes, winning seven
of the 12 available prizes and
leaving only five for other
newspapers to share.
PUNCH beat [size=20pt]the National
Mirror, which won three
prizes in all, and The Nation,
which won two[/size], to emerge
Newspaper of the Year.

gramci: Tinubu errand boys being recognised for "job well done"

gramci: Tinubu errand boys being recognised for "job well done"

Goddex: Punch is just doing dirty job for Asiwaju Progrethieves Congress. The fact tha The Nation comes second rubbishes this award. These two media outfits are very bias and merely thrive on sensational journalism.

I am not surprised anyway, The Republican Party in US also influence awards for Fox News and other of their media outfit. It's Politics.

gregg2: Tribalism is Nigeria's biggest problem. It's not a coincidence that:

1) All the Board of Trustee members of the Award agency are from South West and ACN/APC politicians.

2) All the so-called judges are from South West

3) The First, Second and Third positions are all South West papers sympathetic to ACN/APC dishing out APC propaganda

4) So, The Nation and National Mirror are by these awards better than Guardian, The Sun, Daily Times, Daily Trust, Vanguard and even Thisday because they are not South West papers?

careytommy: Vanguard and The Guardian are the only credible newspapers in Nigeria.