Diageo Africa Business Reporting finalists announced

Commenting, Nick Blazquez, Diageo Africa MD, said, “The hundreds of submissions received this year are a true reflection of the changes that have taken place over the five years since Diageo launched these awards. Regulatory reform and the harmonisation of laws and tariffs, to name but a few positive trends, have increased the investment opportunities all across Africa. This has in turn increased demand for accurate, timely and most of all, accessible information.

“The international media have responded, and now more than ever, the role of business journalists and editors in informing and empowering investors deserves recognition. I would like to congratulate the finalists - the competition was especially tough this year."

The finalists in no particular order are:

Best Published Feature

• ‘Organic farmers face ruin as rich nations agonise over food miles' - Jonathan Clayton (The Times)
  
• ‘The New Colonialists' - Alec Russell (Financial Times)
  
• South Africa Power' - James Macharia (Reuters)
  
• Tourism Special' - Alison Kingsley-Hall & team (BBC Focus on Africa Magazine)

Best Radio Feature

• ‘Ghana - Rural Business' - Steve Evans (BBC World Service, Business Daily)
  
• Africalab' - Hugh Levinson (BBC Radio 4)
  
• 'Kenya's Economy' - Adam Mynott (BBC Radio 4)

Best Television Feature

• ‘Laptops for Africa' - Rory Cellan-Jones (BBC One, BBC News 24, BBC World)
  
• ‘China in Congo' - Tim Whewell and Caroline Pare (BBC Newsnight)
  
• ‘Business in East Africa'- Marie Lora (Agence France Presse TV)

Best Published Photograph

• ‘When trade winds smell sweet' - Christophe Archambault, (Agence France Presse, published in The Economist)
  
• ‘Safaricom' - Joseph Sohm (Alamy, published in Timesonline)
  
• ‘The future is female' - Charles Bibby (Financial Times)
  
• Hard labour' - Georgina Cranston (BBC Focus on Africa)
  
• ‘Kenyan flower fears' - Bernat Armangué Renter (Associated Press, published in The Guardian)

Media of the Year

• The Africa Report (Jeune Afrique)
  
• African Business (IC Publications)
  
• African Banker (IC Publications)
  
• Business Daily (Nation Group)

Journalist of the Year

• Hugh Levinson (BBC Radio 4)
  
• Jonathan Clayton (The Times)
  
• Caroline Lambert (The Economist)
  
• Tristan McConnell (Freelance)

• Anver Versi (African Business)

Winners will now be selected by a panel chaired by Diageo's CEO, Paul Walsh, and comprised of Zeinab Badawi (broadcaster, trustee of BBC World Service Trust); Louis Michel (European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Development); Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu (former CEO, New Partnership for Africa's Development); Dr Alhaji Bamanga Tukur (executive president, African Business Roundtable); Stephen King (director, BBC World Service Trust); Baroness Shriti Vadera (Minister for Business and Competitiveness, UK) and Tim Sebastian (broadcast journalist).

The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony in London on Thursday 3 July.

For more information, go to www.diageoafricabusinessreportingawards.com.