The winners of the British High Commission’s Climate Change Journalism Awards were revealed last Monday in Yaounde.

Edwin Moki Kindzeka from CRTV Radio, Elias Ntungwa Ngalame from the Eden Newspaper and Bertille Damaris Moné Emama of New TV on Monday February 22 at the residence of the British High Commissioner in Yaounde were declared winners of the British High Commission’s Climate Change Journalism Awards. The winners were rewarded with an invitation to travel to the United Kingdom on all expenses paid to deepen their knowledge on climate change. Present during the event was the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma, the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Elvis Ngole Ngole, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection, Patrick Akwa and a host of ambassadors and guests to say bravo to the journalists.

According to one of the jury members, Henry Muluh, Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Buea, the winners were judged on their sense of creativity, scientific knowledge on climate change, technical use of interviews within their reports and journalist’s skills in reporting and presenting a news item. The jury also examined the use of sound effects in the radio report, visuals in the TV reports and the use of photographs for the print reports. Henry Muluh said the climate change reports of Edwin Moki and Bertille Damaris Moné from the Far-North region and Elias Ntungwa Ngalame’s report on the town of Yaounde were the best amongst the lot of reports competing for the award.

Speaking during the event, the British High Commissioner, Bharat Joshi said “I am proud that we sponsored these awards to reward the journalists who best covered this fundamental issue: climate change, in the last few months. I know that the judges were impressed by the quality of entries that they saw”. Bharat Joshi said climate change is a serious problem and the British High Commission is determined to win the battle against climate change by keeping global warming below two per cent.

The British High Commission’s Climate Change Journalism award was launched in September last year to recognise and reward media practitioners who excel in explaining the global and local issues surrounding climate change and the lead up to the Copenhagen Summit of December 2009.