Journalists from Kenya’s media powerhouses have missed out in this year’s prestigious CNN Multichoice African Journalists’ Awards, after being pushed aside by their smaller rivals.
Nation, Kenya’s leading daily newspaper by circulation and revenues, failed to produce a single finalist to the event that rewards Africa’s finest in journalism. In the newspaper segment Nation’s rival Standard got in two finalists, Kiundu Waweru and satirical cartoonist Paul Kalemba both of the The Saturday Standard.
In TV broadcast Citizen TV, which has in the past bagged category awards at the annual gathering, is also missing in action despite being the most-watched TV station in the country and holding some of the best journalists in the industry who command about 40% of viewership. It was beaten by NTV, which is ranked third after KTN. The Nation Media Group run television station produced Enock Sikolia and Charles Kariuki.
In radio, George Oduor Otieno of little-known Baraka FM made it to the short list, beating the most popular stations in this category such as Radio Citizen, Classic 105 and Kiss 100. This shows the alignment in content, where leading media houses have focused on populist journalism and call-in talkshows, as the small media houses deliberately go for indepth human interest news and features.
The competition is scheduled for October 2015 in Nairobi. It received entries from 39 countries across the continent and 31 finalists from 15 countries have been named. From the list, the trend holds Africa-wide, where smaller media outlets are asserting their presence through well-researched content for their niche audiences.
NEXT READ: HERE IS THE FULL LIST OF CNN AWARDS FINALISTS
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