Sports Journalists Award slated for Dec. 4

The Ghana Sports Journalist Awards which was instituted in 2004 has made a comeback after almost six years of no activity with December 4, 2014 fixed as date for the next event at the Accra International Conference Centre..

F & B Consult, led by Fiifi Banson, held the launch of the 2014 awards to celebrate excellence amongst the Ghanaian sports media at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Accra. According to the organizers, the Ghana Sports Awards will cut across writers, photographers, broadcasters, editors and cartoonists, "who are either staff or freelancers for media organizations, and working as a correspondent at either a regional level or a national level."

Fiifi Banson CEO of F & B Consult who also works with Peace FM as a broadcaster said “we are looking for "elements that make a great sports story: tenacity, accuracy, ethics, research, great story telling and the capacity to capture and share the emotion in sport." A committee of judges made up of Football historian, James Oyedeji, veteran sports journalist, Ken Bediako, former Ghana international Augustine Arhinful and media practitioner cum critic Francis Doku will oversee the programme and come out with the best in the categories.

There will be 14 different categories, including the flagship "Sports Journalist of the Year Award." Amongst the categories are: Sports Writer of the Year, Sports Columnist of the Year, Sports Photography of the Year, Sports Website of the Year, Most Popular Radio Sports Presenter of the Year, Radio Sports Programme of the Year, Radio Sports Commentator of the Year (English), Radio Sports Commentator of the Year (local), Television Sports Presenter of the Year, Television Sports Programme of the Year, Most Promising Sports Presenter of the Year, Sports Station of the Year, Hall of Fame honour, and the big one, Sports Journalist of the Year. Some will be based on voting as well as judges' verdict, whilst others will be either solely based on voting ore solely based on the verdict of judges.

Joseph Yamin, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports who performed the launch of the 2014 Awards said sports has many positive sides and it is ideal that F & B Consult have thought it wise to honour members of the sports fraternity.

Alhaji Ahmed Bahmed of Bahmed Travel and Tours promised to sponsor the winner of the Best Sports Journalist of the year. He commended the event organisers and praised the Ghanaian Media for their contribution to the development and promotion of sports.He urged them to feature the less financed sports disciplines.