Winners of Citadel journalism awards announced

"Ms Clayton scored top marks from all judges and was commended for the variety of topics covered and the detailed and exhaustive research included in each feature. She is most certainly a worthy overall winner of the Citadel Words on Money journalism award 2006," said Keith Betty, Citadel CEO, at the awards presentation in Sandton on Wednesday, 29 April 2006.

The entrant that received the highest overall average score is judged as overall winner; top scores in the electronic and print categories secure the awards for those categories; and runners-up awards are given to entrants with highest scores once the category prizes have been awarded.

Bruce Cameron, editor of Personal Finance, twice the overall winner, scooped the top prize in the print category while an entry by Carte Blanche producers Sophia Phirripides and Jonathan Pienaar won the top prize in the electronic category.

Another previous overall winner, Stephen Cranston of Financial Mail, received the Chairman's Award for his investigative features about retirement and pension funds.

Shaun Harris of FINweek was awarded the Peregrine award for excellence in reporting on Hedge Funds.

Runners-up were as follows:

Print media features

Daily newspaper: Renée Bonorchis, Business Report
Weekly newspaper: Johann van Tonder, Sake-Rapport
Business magazine: Steven Jones, Moneyweb
Consumer magazine: Suzette Truter, Sarie

Print media columns

Daily: Erika van der Merwe, Moneyweb
Weekly: Rob Rose, Business Day

Electronic media - best contributions:

Internet: Chris Nthite, Moneyweb
Radio: Alec Hogg, Moneyweb
Television: Bruce Whitfield, Summit TV

Comments Betty, "The past year offered excellent opportunities for features about personal finance and investment matters, with many similar topics attracting the attention of the country's leading publications and electronic media. The life industry, the work of the Pension Funds Adjudicator, investment in property, medical aids and many other topics covered earned entrants top scores."

The judges for the 2006 awards were Sakkie van de Merwe, CEO of the Financial Planning Institute (FPI); Prem Govender, Vice President of the Board of the FPI and CEO of CP Naidoo and Partners; Louis Geldenhuys, consultant to the Bureau for Economic Research and former economist and stock broker with various leading brokerages including BOE Securities; and Robert Brand of the Pearson Chair of Economics Journalism at Rhodes University.