The Loeries and the media: not such happy fellows anymore
11 Oct 2010
The annual Loerie Awards has often been a source of controversy. This year was no different, with stories of a journalist being blacklisted, media partners protesting and news of ongoing battles between the awards committee and journalists abounding.
There's a lot that Andrew Human, CEO of the Loerie Awards, needs to be credited for, more especially reinventing the Loerie Awards and taking what was essentially a once-a-year "party until you fall over" event and transforming it into a year-long programme with multiple elements aimed at promoting creativity, brand communication and the broader advertising community... [But] where Human appears to have failed is in building strong and professional relationships with industry journalists.
To be more exact, the Loeries have had a fractured relationship with journalists and members of the media over many years, culminating this year in the alleged blacklisting of Bizcommunity's Manson. (Disclosure: Mandy de Waal and Herman Manson have a long-standing working relationship through the MarkLives and MandyLives blogs. De Waal also contributed to the now defunct Brand Magazine of which Manson was a founder.)
"Over the past 20 years the Loeries organisation has constantly caused trouble with the trade media that covers the media and marketing industry," says Chris Moerdyk, non-executive chairman of trade portal Bizcommunity. "It all stems from one thing and that is that somehow successive Loerie committees have believed the trade media should see themselves as publicists for the advertising industry, which of course they are not. That's absolutely at the root of the problem. It is not just the recent Loeries - it has been like that since Noah won a gold."
Read the full story at www.thedailymaverick.co.za.
For more:
- Bizcommunity special section: special focus on media freedom
- Bizcommunity Twitterfall: #ZAmediafreedom
- Press Council of South Africa: Help make journalism in South Africa better
- Right2Know petition: www.right2know.org.za
- Avaaz.org petition: South Africa: democracy at risk
- MediaMattersZA: www.Facebook.com/MediaMattersZa and @MediaMattersZA
- Keep South Africa's Media Free: Facebook and @safreemedia
- SANEF: Media Freedom
- Freedomhouse.org: Freedom in the world
- Google News Search: Protection of Information Bill media appeals tribunal
- Twitter Search: ZAmediafreedom
- Google Blog Search: Protection of Information Bill media appeals tribunal
Source: Daily Maverick
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About Mandy de Waal: @mandyldewaal
Editor, writer and researcher. *Editor of #TheFutureByDesign & The Africa Annual *Published in Africa's Greatest Entrepreneurs *Published in Rolling Stone Magazine, The Guardian (UK), Daily Maverick, Finweek, Mail & Guardian, City Press, Rapport, Moneyweb, Noseweek; Brainstorm Magazine; ITWeb, and MarkLives. *Before becoming a full time writer, de Waal founded brand agency Idea Engineers, and led the Cape Town office of Text 100.
