One Award: Rejuvenating Ethiopian Journalism

Rewarding Good Writing, an annual competition and award for published Ethiopian journalists & bloggers is wrapping up a second successful edition to award winners in time for Ethiopian New Year! RGW which was founded in 2008 Ethiopian Calendar and takes place exclusively online under the Hashtag #BestofJETH received this year a whopping 49 entries from 15 media outlets and 6 blogs represented by 34 writers of whom 9 women!
This represents one more indication of success for us as this is a significant increase from 35 entries, 26 writers (including 5 women writers) and 16 media outlets and blogs that participated in this first round of RGW at the end of 2008 Ethiopian calendar!
Rewarding Good Writing’s main objective is to develop an anthology of the best examples of journalistic writing by Ethiopians whether they be published in a formal media outlet or in private social media outlets; Ethiopia based or diaspora based. The advantage of such an exercise, which in the case of RGW is inclusive of the participation of the public through submission of their favorite entries, is that its puts the state of journalistic writing in Ethiopia directly into the spotlight?
By putting all these articles published in a diversity of styles and on a variety of media outlets all together, RGW would like all concerned to ask questions or make realizations on who dominates the generation, debate and discussion on Ethiopian issues? What is the narrative that emerges from it?
RGW is one individual’s initiative but it is supported by many Ethiopian journalists and bloggers through participation as a panel of reviewers (each edition had a panel of three), through transmission of information we share and through active participation in the initiative. We are proud that in one year of running our RGW Facebook page has gained more than 8500 followers of whom 7000+ live in Addis Ababa and are under 35 years of age.
This year and to match the improvement in the number and qualities of entries submitted for review by our public, RGW will recognize all participating writers with a Certificate of Participation, the Top Five entries with RGW memorabilia, the Top 3 entries with 50 Euros each (Fifty Euros) and the Winning Entry with an award of 300 Euros (Three hundred Euros) and a Medal.
A humble but important improvement from last year’s award which only went to the Winning Entry- from Mr Nathenael Feleke of Zone 9 Bloggers- with his novel and used for the first time in Ethiopian journalism “New Journalism” type of piece entitled: Are we in Maekelawi?
The Top Five Entries and the Top Three Entries will be announced on our Facebook and Twitter Page at 21:00 hrs Addis Ababa time on 6th of September, 2017 while the Winning Entry will be announced at 08:00 Addis Ababa time on the 7th of September 2017!
Join us for the celebration! And Happy New Year from RGW Team!
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Tarikua Getachew at @TarikawiPeace on Twitter or email at ethiobestwriting@gmail.com.