15 Dec 2013

The Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe has encouraged local media practitioners to commit to professionalism and report true and balanced facts.

Dr Kedikilwe was speaking at the second annual Lilac Media Awards on Friday December 13 in Gaborone.

The Vice President said the awards were critical as they marked another positive milestone in the development of the media industry in Botswana. He also said as the awards were a celebration in recognition of achievement, it was an encouragement to local media houses, hence development of the local media industry.

The Lilac Media Awards aimed to recognise and celebrate Botswana’s media houses, as surveyed in terms of the public’s perception during the period 2012/13.

The initiative by a media company, Hotwire, aimed to recognise public perception and empower the consumer to share how they feel about local media platforms. The awards celebrated high performers in the categories of radio and print newspapers, each with a number of accolades within the respective categories.

Sunday Standard was recognised as the best overall newspaper while another major award of the night went to Yarona FM as the best overall radio station. For print categories, most preferred for general news went to Sunday Standard while Mmegi was runner up.

Most preferred for business content was scooped by Guardian while Mmegi came second, and for sports content, Mmegi was the most preferred and Mmegi Monitor was runner up.

Most preferred entertainment news went to The Voice newspaper while Gazette came second, and for international content, Sunday Standard was the winner while Mmegi got position two. There was also a category of the most trusted newspaper which saw Sunday Standard winning followed by The DailyNews. RB 1 emerged  the most preferred for local news while Yarona FM was runner up and most preferred international news went to Gabz FM followed by Yarona FM.

General content went to Yarona FM while Gabz FM got position two and business content was won by Gabz FM while Yarona came second. Yarona FM was recognised as the most preferred radio station for talk shows while Duma FM was runner up. Sports content went to Yarona, followed by Duma, and most preferred for music was scooped by Yarona followed by Gabz.

The most trusted radio station was RB 1 while Yarona came second. ENDS