THE Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) TV, in partnership with the US Embassy has honoured, Christabel Oboshie Annan, a journalist with The Finder newspaper under its Media Capacity Building Initiative for Reporting on Disability (MCBIRD) in Accra.
Ms. Annan was honoured at the awards ceremony for the first cohort of the programme to appreciate her reports on the plights of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Ghana.
Her work on Persons Living with Cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome earned her the admission to the fellowship.
As part of the MCBIRD fellowship, 26 journalists from different media houses were carefully selected for a two-day residential capacity building workshop on proper journalism ethics for reporting on PWDs.
All 26 journalists were presented with citations of honour at the awards ceremony.
The ceremony which was held on the International Day for Persons With Disabilities to celebrate diversity and for all to understand their challenges was themed, ‘Leadership by participation of persons with disability towards an inclusive accessible and sustainable post COVID world,’
The United States Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie Sullivan urged fellows of the MCBIRD project to become the voice of PWDs and report accurately on their plights.
She stated that the media carries a huge responsibility to improve the objective truth and that It is essential for the media to research, check their sources, seek a different perspective, wield on fact base reporting that allows the public to hear all sides to serves everyone better.
Ms. Sullivan further expressed her governments commitment to working with Ghanaian Journalists to have an inclusive environment.
The winner for ‘Best Disability Reporter’ was won by TV’3 Portia Sonia Gabor, with the first runner-up for that award going to Prosper Kuorsoh of Ghana News Agency, the second runner-up went to Daniel Abugre Anyorigya of Citi News, and the ‘Best Journalist Living with Disability’ award went to Paul Anomah Kordeih of Global Media Alliance.
Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo of the University of Ghana, Esther Cobbah of Stratcom, Philip Osei Bonsu, host of ‘Ekosiisen,’ Professor Kristin Gilger of Arizona State University in the USA, Philip Acquaye of BlueCrest University, and Dr. Felix Dela Klutse formally of Business Day Newspaper led the training.
YALI TV is an online television platform operated by beneficiaries of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), a programme by the US State Department that started under US President, Barack Obama to train the next generation of African leaders.
