The National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) on Monday presented Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) inaugural media awards to journalists in print, online, radio and TV.
NCST, as the apex body in science technology and innovation in Malawi hosts the Malawi chapter for OFAB, a multinational project promoting agricultural biotechnology.
Speaking after presenting the Media awards, Lyson Kampira, Chief Research Services Officer at NCST, said as NCST they are promoting science reporting among journalists in Malawi and they want more Journalists in the country to report science issues which have proved facts convenient and relevant to the society.
“We want to encourage journalists to write stories that are contributive and inform the masses about what biotechnology is and its benefits,”.
“As NCST we need to be in the forefront in promoting biotechnology and its utilization in order to bridge the information gaps that exist among people,” said Kampira.
According to Kampira, reaching this far they have seen a number of stories on science-based activities and developments and most of the journalists are taking interest to interact with the scientists and researchers so that they have true facts which can be reported to the Malawi Society.
Andrew Viano is the National Winner in the Radio Category and was also previously named the regional winner in the same category earlier this month in Tanzania.
Speaking to Malawi24, Viano said winning this award is a big achievement to him and the award will motivate him to continue writing good stories which have an impact and also reporting more on science.
“All I can say is, thank you God. But also, I’d like to thank my mentors. When we have an idea, we share with mentors and they help us with some knowledge. The scientists that we interact with, the farmers that we interact with, and several other sources that we interact with. We need to thank them because without them this story wouldn’t come out,” said Viano.
Other winners were Cassim Aubi From ZBS, runner up in the radio category, Benard Ngege of MBC, national winner Television Category; Gift Kaimira of GDTV, runner up (TV); Richard Chirombo of Times Group, overall winner Print Category and Meclina Chirwa of Africa Brief as the runner up. All the winners got monetary rewards. Each overall winner got 750,000 kwacha while the runner up got 450,000 kwacha.
The awards are locally managed by the National Commission for Science and Technology and aims at promoting professional science reporting focusing on agriculture biotechnology.
