These Awards come at a right time, as we celebrate 20 years of SANLAM Community Newspaper Awards and two years of Community Media Awards (SABC/MDDA). The Local Media Awards bring together both these initiatives into one big event in the best interest of developing grassroots/local media talent and promoting excellence. The Local Media Awards recognises the following subsectors/categories of the grassroots media:
This year some 150 community newspapers and community radio stations from across the country as well as one from Namibia participated. No fewer than 970 individual entries in the typography, writing, photography and 29 entries for the radio categories (Best Community Radio Station, Broadcasting in Indigenous Languages, In-depth News Coverage and Current Affairs, and in Investigative Journalism) were judged. More than 1 000 photographs and over 25 radio programmes were also assessed individually. This makes the competition the largest of the 32 community/grassroots competitions held in South Africa annually.
In the Journalist of the Year category Desireé Rorke of Lowvelder, Nelspruit, achieved the distinction of becoming the first journalist to win this award two years in succession. As in 2009 her work was characterised by impressive investigative writing. She was also outstanding in the section Investigative Reporting and in Hard News she came a very close second to the experienced Daleen Naudé (Middelburg Observer).
The Alet Roux Medal of Honour for the "best newcomer" went to Carmen Le Roux Krige of Cape Community Newspapers' Tygertalk.
An impressive portfolio earned Jannie du Plessis of the Weslander the Photographer of the Year award. He was also runner-up in the News category, which was won by Claudine Senekal of Ladysmith Herald, last year's Photographer of the Year. Herman Steyn (Die Pos), Roelof de Jonge (Limpopo Informant) and Hennie Homan (Lowvelder) have clearly also not lost their touch with the camera.
The Newspaper category was completely restructured. Among the privately-owned newspapers Lowvelder (paid newspapers) and Tygerburger Goodwood (free newspapers) were named the winners. The winners in the sections for small independent (paid) newspapers were Polokwane Observer (established) and The Month (upcoming). Zithethele was die "grassroots" winner.
In the Front Pages category Lowvelder, Tygerburger, Eastern Cape Today, Polokwane Observer and EzaKwaZulu News chalked up the section prizes.
In the Broadcast Media category, Maputaland Community Radio based in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal won the Best Community Radio Station award and the special mention went to Radio Islam (Gauteng-based) and Moletsi Community Radio in Limpopo province.
The award for In-depth News and Current Affairs went to Tobile Ximba of Good News Community Radio, a community of interest radio station in KwaZulu-Natal. The special mention for this category went to Mashudu Ravhengani of Radio Pulpit based in Gauteng and Choene Wilson Letwala of Mokopane Community Radio in Limpopo province.
