By Moses Walubiri
New Vision’s Petride Mudoola has won the second edition of the “Nile Breweries Exceptional Journalism Awards” in the print category.
Inaugurated in 2011, the award recognises journalists who go an “extra mile in their reporting; bringing out salient issues, showing passion and demonstrating innovation, but remaining factual.”
Mudoola beat off stiff competition from a host of journalists, who submitted entries in form of copies of published stories bearing original bylines.
She joins a host of her colleagues; Gerald Tenywa, Carol Natukunda and Godfrey Ojore, whose works have attracted international recognition.
Mudoola’s award-winning piece was published in Sunday Vision.
It was about George Lwanga, a blind convict in Mbale prison, who was pondering forfeiting his freedom after serving his sentence because he was certain he had no home to return to.
The story went viral, with bloggers and other Internet fora discussing it extensively. The White missionaries in Mbale ultimately accepted to give Lwanga a home.
Each of the winners in the different categories won sh500,000 and a certificate, while the overall winner walked away with sh1m.
Handing over the prizes at the Mask Lounge in Bukoto, Kampala on Friday, SB Miller corporate affairs manager Onapito Ekomoloit urged journalists to produce works that transform the lives of their audience, pointing out Mudoola’s story for special praise.
Unlike the previous edition, where the organisers picked winners based on their personal assessment of reporting, this edition was open to journalists in print, broadcast and electronic media.
Only works originally published or broadcast from April 2012 through to December 31, 2012 were eligible for consideration.
