DAME holds silver jubilee

The Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) will hold its 25th edition on Sunday, December 4, 2016 at Oriental Hotel, Lagos, Lekki.

It will be a fitting climax to a journey that began March 20, 1992 when the first edition of the awards was held. Earlier in the year, entries were received, followed by a rigorous assessment of the entries by a panel of judges drawn from the pool of experienced journalists, academics and discerning members of civil society.

According to Programmes Officer for DAME, Femi Babatunde, “The Diamond Awards for Media Excellence is a not-for-profit media NGO that focuses on enhancing responsibility in the media through training and rewarding outstanding performances in the mass media through an annual awards scheme. By so doing, DAME encourages spirit of healthy competition among media professionals, which has been acknowledged as leading to a continuous improvement in media practice.”

DAME has grown in stature as Africa’s most consistent media awards programme by providing a platform to assess media performance, reflect on progress made and serve as a reunion of media professionals and consumers of media messages.

DAME also holds a yearly “Widening the Pools of Excellence” training in Lagos to intimate journalists with new challenges in reporting and deepen their news judgment.

The organisation also organised various training programmes on electoral reporting and ethics for journalists in Akure and Ibadan in June and August 2014.

It coordinated a five-city training (Abuja, Kano, Jos, Port Harcourt, Gombe) on conflict sensitivity training for the defence correspondents and security spokespersons under a grant from the National Stability and Reconciliation from December 2014 till January 2016.

DAME is run by a board of trustees that includes media professionals and veterans, and funded by individuals and organisations that believe in a strong, free and responsible media.