The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has released the list of award nominees for the 27th edition of the annual GJA Awards.

The awards ceremony slated for Sunday, October 29, 2023, will celebrate journalists who distinguished themselves in their professional practice.

The nominees span across 34 categories including the ultimate award winner, the GJA Journalist of the Year.

Betty Apau-Oppon, Chairperson of the GJA Awards Committee, announcing the nominees at a press conference, in Accra, on Wednesday, said the Committee received 276 entries including 15 entries from student journalists.

She said out of the 34 categories, four-Sports, photojournalism, online news and radio documentary, failed to produce a winner.

She indicated that, the Committee selected the best entries which ticked key areas such as captivating headlines, good intros, multiple sourcing and interviews, coherent presentations, verified facts and data references, excellent language, balanced work

“In the end, what we have is a reflection of output of journalists and media houses across the year 2022,” she said.

Mrs Apau-Oppon said, while this year’s entries were an improvement on previous years, some of the entries had issues, including wrong categorisation and were, thus, not considered.

“It is worthy to note that those selected for the awards did their best to get what was deserving,” she added.

The list of the nominees are; Anthony Adongo Apubeo – Ghana News Agency (GNA), Beatrice Senadju – Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Della Russel Ocloo- Daily Graphic, Vivian Adu-Atinka Media, Fred Duhoe – Citi TV, Akua Oforiwa Darko-GBC, Gifty Adjei-GBC, Alberto Mario Noretti- The Mirror, Seth Bokpe-The Fourth Estate, Emma Davies-MultiMedia Group, Mohammed Fugu- Daily Graphic, Kweku Bolton – GBC; Francisca Enchil – Freelance, via Joynews and Edward Adeti – The Fourth Estate/Media without Borders.

These rest are; Erastus Asare Donkor-Multimedia Group, Emmanuel Dzivenu- Joy Prime, Eric Mensah-Ayettey – Myjoyonline; Efia Akese-The Mirror; Kester Aburam Korankye – Daily Graphic; Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman – EIB network; Felix Dela Klutse – Pent Media Centre; Neta Kris Abiana Parsram-Multimedia Group; Doreen Ampofo –GBC, Godwin Asediba-Media General and Collincia Ayifa-Student journalist via Multimedia Group.

Media nominees Joyfm/Joy News, Daily Graphic; Atinka Media and UTV and Media General.

The theme for this year’s event is: “Leveraging Media Freedom to Sustain the Democratic and Security Architecture: The Litmus Test of Election 2024.”

Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, President, GJA, commended the nine-member Awards Committee for diligently delivering on its mandate.

He said the GJA believed that the 2024 general election was “litmus test” for the democratic and security credential of the country.

As such, he said, the media’s role in ensuring success in the elections could not be underplayed, stressing that, it could only ensure this “only under a media freedom regime that is conducive to the process.

“It is the reason the GJA will continue to condemn and raise against any form of attack on the media which we see as an affront to media freedom.”