Malawian journalist in top 4 of pan-African competition: Mabvuto Banda
Malawian investigative journalist Mabvuto Banda is among the top four finalists in a pan African investigative journalism competition organized by the African Media Initiative (AMI) .
AMI, is the continents largest association of media owners and operators in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)
Mabvuto was among the 20 finalists picked on the continent and awarded grants two months ago to investigate and write about agriculture and food security in Africa.
“I published my story on my blog (and also posted on Nyasa Times) and it was titled Malawi’s One Night Stand investigating how small holder farmers have remained poor while the political class has gotten richer from the fertiliser subsidy programme,” Mabvuto said in an interview with Nyasa Times.
The three others in the run for the top price are Alex Chamwada from Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Diana Neille from the South African E News channel and Nana Boakye-Yiadom from Ghana.
Mabvuto is an awarding winning journalist who in 2006 was named Reuters News Agency journalist of the year for his coverage on Madonna’s adoption fiasco in Malawi. The same year, Mabvuto shared the best investigative journalist in southern Africa MISA award with two journalists from Mail&Gaurdian in South Africa. He writes for Reuters, Inter Press Service and many other international publications.
AMI will announce the overall winner next week in Addis Ababa.
The project is the African Story Challenge supported by a million dollar grant from the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation, the African Development Bank and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
The pan-African competition seeks to challenge the media to expand coverage of fundamental issues and support investigative data driven stories.
