Punch Nigeria Limited, the publishers of The PUNCH, Saturday PUNCH and Sunday PUNCH, once again asserted its leadership in the media industry on Sunday, as it was named the Newspaper of the Year at the 30th edition of the Nigeria Media Merit Awards 2022.
The PUNCH, which won the award in 2021 and several previous editions, defeated The Guardian and Daily Trust to clinch the coveted award.
The Editor, Weekend Titles, Olusola Fabiyi, received the award on behalf of the company.
The Chairman, Panel of Assessors, Mr Dele Adetiba, while listing the criteria for the Newspaper of the Year Award, said, “Some of the criteria are level of adherence to the rules of the regulatory bodies, the percentage of local content, response to financial obligations internally and to regulatory bodies, public acceptance and perception of the media house, quality of production, level of professionalism in content, objectivity, fairness and balance, and industrial harmony within the organisation.”
In the Editor of the Year category, a former Editor of The PUNCH, Mr Ademola Oni, who is now the General Manager, Publications and Digital, narrowly lost the award to Hamza Idris of Daily Trust, while the Editor of The Nation was also a runner-up.
Meanwhile, several journalists with your darling newspaper also won in eight other categories, while others emerged as runners-up.
The Head, Investigation Desk, Tessy Igomu, won the Environment Reporter of the Year, while Afeez Hanafi, formerly of The PUNCH, and Innocent Duru of The Nation emerged as runners-up.
Igomu was also a runner-up in the Female Reporter category, won by Francis Juliana of the New Telegraph, while she equally emerged as a runner-up in the Newspaper Feature Writer of the Year, won by Ani Percy, formerly of The PUNCH.
The Head of Interviews Desk on the Weekend Titles, Oladimeji Ramon, won the Telecommunications and Real Estate Reporter categories.
In the Telecommunications category, he defeated Adepetun Adeyemi of The Guardian and Lucas Ajanaku of The Nation, while in the Real Estate category, he defeated Hanafi and Gbenga Aderanti of The Nation to clinch the prize.
Hanafi was one of the top winners at the event. He won the Tourism Reporter of the Year, CSR Reporter of the Year and Insurance Reporter of the Year.
In the Insurance category, he and Assistant Business Editor of The PUNCH, Nike Popoola, were runners-up.
Hanafi, who had six nominations, also emerged as a runner-up in the Oil and Gas category, won by Lucas Ajanaku of The Nation, while he was named a runner-up in the Real Estate and Environment categories won by other PUNCH journalists.
Also, Olatunji Obasa, formerly of The PUNCH, won the News Photographer of the Year. Another photojournalist of The PUNCH, Kayode Jaiyeola, was a runner-up in the category.
A Chief Correspondent, Tunde Ajaja, emerged as the runner-up in the Business and Political Reporter of the Year categories.
Dauda Oluwakemi of The Nation won the Business category, while Dare Adekanmbi of Sunday Tribune won the Political Reporter of the Year category.
Another Senior Correspondent, Tope Omogbolagun, emerged as a runner-up in the Agriculture, Money Market and CSR categories. The Agriculture category was won by Gbenga Akinfenwa of The Guardian; while the Money Market prize went to Collins Nweze of The Nation.
A correspondent, Janet Ogundepo, lost the Agriculture Reporter of the Year to Gbenga Akinfenwa of The Guardian. Ogundepo also emerged as the runner-up in the Entertainment category, won by Innocent Duru of The Nation.
A correspondent, Godfrey George, emerged as the runner-up in the Defence and CSR categories. Gboyega Alaka of The Nation won the Defence category.
Grace Edema, a Senior Correspondent with The PUNCH, lost the Education category to Iyabo Lawal of The Guardian. Francis Juliana Ebere of the New Telegraph was also a runner-up in the category.
In the Columnist of the Year category, Abimbola Adelakun and Tunde Odesola of The PUNCH lost the award to Azu Ishiekwene of Vanguard.
Adetiba said entries were assessed based on accuracy, originality, initiative, evidence, freshness of idea, depth, perspective, language, mood, balance and objectivity, human interest and social significance. He noted that the pass mark for each entry was 70 per cent.
In this special edition marking the award’s 30th anniversary, he said there were 837 entries from 588 applicants for the 50 categories, a phenomenal increase from the 11 categories in 1992 when the award made its debut. He ascribed the increase in entries to the award’s reputation.
Present at the event were the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who represented the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.); the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu; Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotosho; former Minister of Health, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi; the Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission, Shehu Ilelah; the Chairman of DAAR Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, among others.
Sanwo-Olu encouraged journalists to hold powerful institutions to account, fight for the downtrodden and use their voices to bring to the fore issues in society that needed to be addressed.
He added, “Your standards must never be lowered for anything and definitely not in this age in which social media and the internet have enabled the easy amplification of fake news, malicious reports and hate speech that are intended to give undue political advantage or to divide our society or even derail this our democracy.”
