THE Guyana Chronicle copped 18 awards including the Prestigious Young Journalist of the Year at the 2019 Guyana Press Association (GPA) Awards Ceremony held at the Pegasus Hotel on Saturday evening.

The state newspaper has won the Young Journalist of the Year award for the third consecutive year. The award was given to Vishani Ragobeer, who is currently pursuing studies at the University of the West Indies.

This year there were 18 categories, one category was dropped due to what the judges said were poor quality of entries. This year there were almost 260 entries with some 35 persons entering. The sport categories, based on suggestions and demands last year, only received three entries this year.

The overall winner was Ms. Ragobeer, who received the winning prizes for Coverage of Human Rights Issues and Investigative Reporting, along with the winning prize for Young Journalist of the Year. Additionally she received third place for coverage of Science and Technology issues and third place for best online feature.

Other winners at the Guyana Chronicle included Vanessa Braithwaite, who won the award for Coverage of Environmental and Land Issues, along with the winning prize for Best Print Feature. Braithwaite also received second place for Coverage of Business and Finance Issues, while she placed third in the category of the young journalist of the year award. Naomi Marshall received the third place prize for Coverage of Human Rights Issues while Online Editor, Alva Solomon, received the second place prize in the Coverage of Human Rights Issues in addition to another second place prize in the Best Print Feature category. News Editor, Tajeram Mohabir, received the second place in the Coverage of Agricultural issues; Chief Reporter, Rabindra Rooplall, received the third place prize for Coverage of Political and Industrial Relations Issues along with another third prize for News Photography.

Assistant Chief Photographer, Delano Williams, received the second place prize for News Photography and Senior photographer and Technical Coordinator, Samuel Maughn, won the first place prize in News Photography. Tamica Garnett received the winning prize for Best coverage of Arts and Culture.
Following, this year’s award, the GPA plans to revisit the photography category as the association noticed that sport images battled strongly with hard and human interest news to gain winning positions.

The judges for the event were Reuters Photographer, Andrea Desilva; Austrialian Journalist and Author, James Massola – now living in Indonesia; Argentine Journalist, Nicolas Luca; UWI Lecturer and Communications Consultant, Steffon Campbell; Trinidadian Journalist, Wesley Gibbings; Barbadian Journalist and Radio Veteran, Julius Gittens; Trinidadian Columnist and Advocate, Afra Raymond; UWI Climate Scientist, Dale Rankin; Sport Journalist, Lasana Liburd and Serbian Investigative journalist, Gordana Bjeletic.

Meanwhile, GPA Executive, Denis Chabrol, in his address to the gathering which included Foreign Secretary, Carl Greenidge, said 2019 has been an intense year for local journalists. “What we know for sure it is going to be an even testier period in the not so near future. With Guyana on the cusp of new economic wealth, possible paradigm shifts and political twist and turns, we encourage you to stay true to the profession,” Chabrol told the gathering.

The GPA executive further called on journalist to commit to providing the truth to the readers, listeners and audience, with unbiased facts and nothing else. Additionally, Chabrol, on behalf of the GPA and its executive, called on Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Retired Justice Claudette Singh and Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, to be accessible to the media in this crucial period heading towards general elections.

“We are tired of hearing from who can best be termed political representatives with vested interests on the Guyana Elections Commission. It is time for the Chairman of GECOM and GECOM’s CEO to brief the media to avoid confusion and misinterpretation in the minds of voters,” the GPA official said.