The Nigerian Breweries has announced that journalists can start submitting articles for vetting for the 8th edition of the Golden Pen Awards, meant to yearly honour journalists who abide by the fine ethics of the journalism profession.

In a press conference in Lagos last week, the Corporate Affairs Adviser, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Kurfre Ekanem said the award was introduced to promote professionalism and objective reportage of events in Nigeria.

“Each of the past seven editions have strengthened the credibility of the Golden Pen awards because they have made it more inclusive and ensured an increased media buy-in,” he noted.

He further stated that since 2014, the awards’ focus had been on journalists who excel in reporting critical development stories. For the third year running, the thematic area for the award remains: Education, youth Empowerment and Talent Development, while only stories published in 2015 would be considered for the award.

According to him, the modalities used over the last two years in rewarding and celebrating outstanding Nigerian journalists would be maintained. “As usual, an independent jury will analyse the entries for their originality, news value, use of resources, credibility and factuality. Other areas of interest would include info-graphics, layout/headline, clarity and social responsibility,” he said.

He emphasised that after the adjudication, a shortlist of nominees would be announced early in October while the Awards ceremony will hold on Friday, October 28, 2016, where winners will be announced.

The categories include, the Nigerian Breweries (NB) reporter of the year, the Golden Pen NB report of the year, the NB Golden Pen Photojournalist of the year.

Past winners of the awards include, ThisDay’s Raheem Akingbolu, BusinessWorld’s Canice Opara, The Nation’s Seun Akioye, The NewTelgraph’s Hussain Sulaiman and Godwin Irekhe, Tell Magazines’s Anthony Akaeze.

The Golden Pen Awards stands out as our modest contribution to the growth of the Nigerian media, and entries is open to all media platforms,” he added.
Also present at the conference were, the Managing Director, Neo Media and Marketing, Ehi Braimah, NB 2015 Reporter of the year, Canice Opara, Anthony Akaeze among others.