The Daily Dispatch’s award-winning coverage. The Taco Kuiper Awards for Investigative Journalism, South Africa’s richest and arguably most prestigious honours for journalism, were announced in Johannesburg yesterday, at a luncheon at the Rand Club.
The top prize, worth R200 000, went to the Daily Dispatch,a relatively small regional paper based in East London, for its coverage of terrible conditions in the Frere Hospital in the Eastern Cape, where hundreds of new born babies are dying every year.
The runner-up was the weekly investigative paper, the Mail&Guardian,for its coverage of National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, who was subsequently suspended and will be standing trial for corruption. The Mail&Guardian won R100 000.
The judges said their criteria included looking for stories that:
• Probe beneath the surface
• Go beyond the everyday
• Show commitment of time and energy
• Have a wide impact
• Show persistence and courage
Other shortlisted entries were Beeld, for “Gif in die water (Toxic water)”; the Sowetan for “Condom bribe scandal”; and the Sunday Times for “Manto: A drunk and a thief”.
Flow designed the logos and corporate communications materials for the Taco Kuper Investigative Journalism Award and Fund, and produced the Powerpoint presentation announcing the winners. We are proud to be associated with the award, and congratulate the winners on the irnotable achievement.
Read the Daily Dispatch’s coverage of the Frere Hospital story here.