Times dominate FMB U-20 Football League media awards
Four members of Times Group dominated the FMB Under-20 Youth Football League media awards during a gala held at the bank’s headquarters in Blantyre on Wednesday.
Malawi News deputy editor, Pilirani Kachinziri, who also hosts Sports Arena of Times TV, was named the best television presenter.
Another member of the Times Group, Lusayo Kanyika, was selected best print reporter with Pledge Jali of The Nation named the second best reporter.
Mabvuto Kambuwe, also from Times Group, was voted best photo journalist while Jean Chalungama was voted as the second best radio presenter, finishing behind Mike Bango of Zodiak Broadcasting Station.
Jeromy Kadewere of Nyasa Times was voted best online reporter.
Each of the outstanding journalists received a miniature trophy and a certificate. Each winner also received K35,000 with the second best pocketing K25,000.
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) competitions manager, Gomezgani Zakazaka, said they used different criteria from the previous editions to identify the winners.
“We looked at various aspects including relevance, creativity, prominence, objectivity, honesty, boldness and frequency among others. This time reporters were impressive as they were analysing issues,” he said.
“Instead of depending on fixtures and results to do stories, reporters created different angles including highlighting where the league is coming from and how the leagues have progressed to the Super League and national teams.”
Zakazaka also clarified that Chalungama was voted second best for her contributions to both Ufulu and now at Times Radio.
FMB’s head of marketing, Sylvia Mataka, commended the journalists for their impressive work.
“We have a good working relationship with journalists such that they do not wait for our press releases to do our stories, but they are able to pick different issues to highlight events and activities related to FMB,” she said.
National Youth Football League Committee vice-general secretary, Chimango Munthali, said the league was exciting because of the coverage.
“Reporters were filing stories from all angles and they were also trying to outwit each other,” he said.
Chairperson for the Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Thom Khanje, who was the guest of honour, hailed FMB for recognising outstanding journalists.
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