Senior Reporter and Head of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) desk at Champion Newspapers Limited, Lagos-Nigeria has bagged the first-ever African Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Reporter’s award.
Recieving the award which was the first of its kind by the Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and Digital Commons,Remmy said that there was need for Journalists to report on FOSS issues for the development of the African software industry.
The award was presented to him in Accra, Tuesday night, at the weeklong 4TH Idlelo conference organized by FOSSFA, Digital Commons and Deutsche Welle, colourful dinner hosted at the Council of State House, Accra.
Speaking at the ceremony, chairperson, FOSSFA, Nnenna Nwakanma noted that the award was open to Africans living on the continent, authors of articles or broadcasts that were published or aired in the last two years.
Winning entries, she pointed out was an article described as valuable to an African audience, which showed clarity in communication and significantly disclosing, explaining, interpreting and reporting the impact of FOSS on the development of Africa and recognizin newsworthiness thereof.
Therefore, she said that Nweke’s piece on ‘Open Source as a business solution’ meant the aforementioned criterion based on the juries declaration and therefore, was pronounced the best.
She also promised that FOSSFA would continue to support African media practitioners, even as she solicited for more reportage in African media.
Nweke is not new to professional recognitions as he had in the past won the Siemens African Profile Award for 2004 and 2005; thus becoming the first Nigerian to win such award on excellence in science and technology reporting twice in addition to a merit awarded him in 2008.
He is also a Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) journalist recently rebranded based at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, where he won the second prize in Local Content Application category at the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) awards in 2005 organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In 2006, Nweke was honoured with the Hewlett Packard (HP) Nigeria’s top prize for Nigerian ICT journalists in technology reporting, whereas he was the first runner up in the Nigerian IT & Telecom Awards print category.
Currently, a Master of Arts student of University of Malta in Contemporary Diplomacy, Nweke was at the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP-07) in Malaysia, where he took the second prize in ICT Research and Innovations category of AISI.
While at the 10th Highway Africa conference-06, he was adjudged the SABC-HANA Journalist of the Year in recognition and promotion of creative, innovative and appropriate use of new media technology on the continent, even as he emerged the Publicity Secretary, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) a not-profit organisation.
A founding member of the Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness (JACITAD) and focal point for the African ICTMedia for Nigeria, Nweke, last year was nominated into the International WHO’S WHO of Professionals in 2009 Edition.
Nweke is also a member of the New Media team a Live Blogging African team English content creator.
Be First to Comment