The PUNCH, Nigeria’s most widely read newspaper, once again asserted its leadership status in the media industry, emerging the Newspaper of the Year at the 30th edition of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence in Lagos on Sunday ahead of THE Nation and The Guardian.
This is coming barely two months after your darling medium emerged the Newspaper of the Year at the Nigeria Media Merit Awards.
The newspaper had won the coveted prize at DAME 10 consecutive times between 2009 and 2019.
The PUNCH also won in the Editorial Writing category at the event held at Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos, with an editorial titled, ‘COVID-19 health workers deserve applause,’ beating The Guardian to the prize.
The Editor of The PUNCH, Mr Ademola Oni, was named Editor of the Year, while The Nation and The Guardian’s editors, Mr Adeniyi Adesina and Mr Alabi Williams, emerged as first and second runners-up, respectively.
The PUNCH reporters also shone at the award ceremony, winning in three categories.
A Chief Correspondent with PUNCH, Oladimeji Ramon, won the Judiciary Reporting with his story titled, ‘How AGF, CBN shield police, military from paying damages to victims of rights abuses’. A former PUNCH journalist, Ade Adesomoju, and Gbenga Ogundare of The Cable, were first and second runners-up, respectively.
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A Senior Correspondent with The PUNCH, Afeez Hanafi, clinched the Nutrition Reporting prize with his story titled, ‘Kara: Ogun abattoir where filth, flies are as common as meat’. He beat a former reporter with The Nation, Medinat Kanabe, and The Nation’s Moses Emorinken to the gong.
Hanafi was also a second runner-up in the Lagos Reporting category won by a TVC reporter, Adedoja Salami-Adeniyi.
The Education Reporting was won by PUNCH’s Senior Correspondent, Tope Omogbolagun, with her story, ‘COVID-19: Internet hiccups, poverty, outages frustrating Nigeria’s classes’. Grace Edema of The PUNCH was the second runner-up, while TheCable’s Ogundare emerged as the first runner-up.
The Head of The PUNCH’s Metro Desk, Samson Folarin, and The Nation’s Associate Editor, Olatunji Ololade, were first and second runners-up in the Investigative Reporting category won by Premium Times’ Taiwo Hassan-Adebayo.
The PUNCH was also the first runner-up in the Best Designed Newspaper category won by ThisDay, while The Guardian was the second runner-up.
In the Child-friendly Medium category, The PUNCH and The Nation were second and first runners-up respectively, while The Guardian was named the winner.
The 2021 DAME Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to a former Managing Director and Executive Consultant of The Guardian, Mr Oyinlade Bonuola.
In his welcome address, the Supervising Trustee and Chief Executive Officer, Diamond Publications, Mr Lanre Idowu, said 13 category winners emerged out of the 24 categories advertised by DAME, adding that the judges could not find finalists in the other 11 categories.
