Save the Children Sweden presented Wallace Mawire, a Zimbabwean journalist with the Best Photojournalist award in Lilongwe,Malawi
Zimbabwean journalist awarded MISA Best Photojournalist award for children’s rights
By a Correspondent : The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional office in Windhoek, Namibia in association with Save the Children Sweden presented Wallace Mawire, a Zimbabwean journalist with the Best Photojournalist award in Lilongwe,Malawi on 22 December 2012 for contribution towards ethical reporting on child rights in the Media.
There were also awards in the print and broadcast category which all went to Malawi, except the photojournalism category which went to Zimbabwe.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is a non-governmental organization with members in 11 countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. It focuses primarily on the need to promote free, independent and pluralistic media, as envisaged in the 1991 Windhoek Declaration. MISA seeks ways to promote the free flow of information and co-operation between media workers, as a principal means of nurturing democracy and human rights in Africa.
The Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI) is a regional, non-profit organization operating in 13 East and Southern African countries. REPSSI promotes an enabling environment for communities and families in East and Southern Africa to preserve, nurture and restore the psychosocial wellbeing of children and youth. REPSSI responds to critical needs to mitigate the negative impact of conflict, poverty, HIV and AIDS upon the psychosocial wellbeing of affected children and youth, their families and communities in the region.
Save the Children Sweden is a broad based democratic movement and a politically and religiously unaffiliated non-governmental organization. Save the Children Sweden is an active member of the International Save the Children Alliance. Save the Children Sweden fights for children’s rights. It delivers immediate and lasting improvements to children’s lives worldwide.
All the three organisations recognized the need for southern Africa media to report positively and informatively and with knowledge on children issues and child rights in line with UN Convention on the Rights of a Child. The awards will thus help to motivate the capacities of journalists so that they can avoid emotional and psychological impacts on children caused by unethical representations of children by media. Consideration was jointly done through in-country trainings that synchronized introduction to psychosocial concepts/issues and ethical reporting guidelines.
