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| National |
| Nation newspapers top awards list |
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by
Bright Sonani, 29 December 2004
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11:19:24
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Nation Publications Limited (NPL) dominated the media category in Entertainers of the Year awards Sunday evening with The Nation newspaper emerging number one and its sister newspaper the Weekend Nation coming second.
The party for NPL did not end there as two of its cartoon strips Amtchona and Zabweka came first and third respectively.
The Nation scooped 2,570 votes ahead of Weekend Nation which got 780 votes at ceremony jointly organised by Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Television Malawi (TVM) which took place at Le Meridien Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre.
The Nation went away with a certificate, K7,120 cash prize and Unilever South East Africa hamper while Weekend Nation went away with K5,120 cash and a Rab Processors hamper. Malawi News emerged third with 650 votes in the newspaper category.
Amtchona scooped 3,230 votes to beat Malawi News’ Fingo which scooped 560 votes for second position while Zabweka got 480 votes.
The Nation Editor Edward Chisambo in an interview after receiving the award said the victory did not come as much of a surprise because of the effort which was put throughout the year in coming up with the daily paper.
“We are not surprised as such. There has been good team effort through and through but we still realise that we could do better than this. With similar team work our readers should expect a better job this coming year,” said Chisambo.
The annual awards were this year presented to at least 24 individuals who have excelled in the year and these included musicians, TV and radio personalities, actors and actresses as well as players and teams from different sports disciplines.
Addressing the guests at the event, deputy Minister of Information and Tourism Henry Mumba commended MBC for continuing to organise the event despite facing financial and resource constraints.
He said Entertainers of the Year was not an ordinary annual event but a tool for promoting excellence among artists and other players in the entertainment field in the country.
“The event encourages competition as each artist, writer, football or netball player strives to give out the best of talent. It is this competition which has enabled some footballers, for instance, to turn professional and play in upper class leagues,” said Mumba.
He said as government effort to honour entertainers from various disciplines, it will continue supporting the event through MBC.
He also commended companies which sponsored the event and TVM for joining hands with MBC to come up with the programme. The event was covered live on both MBC radios and TVM.
The sponsors included Unilever, Rab Processors, Stanbic Bank, Blantyre Business College (BBC), Rapid Steam Laundry, Rainbow Paints, Kas Freight Limited, Food Products Limited, Ching’onga Estates Limited, Soche Tour and Travel, Cash Build and Escom.
Entertainers of the Year was formally known as MBC Entertainers of the Year. Chairman of the organising committee Geoffrey Kazembe, in an interview, said MBC would want to accommodate all media houses that would want to participate in the event.
Kazembe said this year apart from TVM, MBC invited other private broadcasting houses most of whom could not participate due to huge financial obligations in organising the event.
He said due to the burden that MBC has in organising the event a proposal has been made to government to set up a special trust fund which would assist in financing the annual programme.
“We would want to see Entertainers of the Year having its own account,” he said.
TVM board chairman Yusuf Matumula in his address pledged that TVM would continue co-organising the event along with MBC as a way of contributing to its success.
According the Chief Judge Peter Chisale, this year’s Entertainers of the Year results were certified by an independent auditing firm KPMG for authenticity and he said people were free to inspect the final count.
MBC Entertainers of the Year was started in 1975 as an in-house programme at the broadcasting house recognising its radio personalities.
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