THE word of the night was “diverse”.

This was the highlight of Saturday night’s 2019 Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) National Journalism Awards for PAJ President George Davis, as media professionals from at least seven news entities received awards for works done across print, electronic and radio categories at the event held at Courtleigh Auditorium in New Kingston.

The PAJ president also noted the quality of the stories submitted this year.

“It was an awesome night. It really gave me such pleasure to see so many young people collecting awards for such good work. The tone of the evening for me was set by the judges’ report. The best thing for me was the variety of winners. I am very happy for how the awards seemed to have been spread around. JIS (Jamaica Information Service) got something, IRIE FM got something, RJR/Gleaner Group got their due, and the Observer got something,” said Davis.

But another major highlight of the night was a historic moment for the Jamaica Observer, whose reporters and editors received top awards, among them the prestigious awards for both Journalist of the Year and Young Journalist of the year.

The Observer also copped the print awards in the Sport and News categories, and a certificate of merit and top honours for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) award for excellence in reporting on children’s rights.

The winners from the Observer were: Racquel Porter, who was named Journalist of the Year and copped the UNICEF award for excellence in reporting on children’s rights; Anika Richards, who received a certificate of merit also for the UNICEF award for excellence in reporting on children’s rights; Sharlene Hendricks won Young Journalist of the Year; Sherdon Cowan won the print category for the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for Sports; and HG Helps received the Hector Bernard/Theodore Sealy Award for News.

Observer‘s Executive Editor — Publications Vernon Davidson expressed congratulations to the ‘O Team’.

“I am extremely proud of my team members, particularly for the fact that the demands of this job are heavy and can really sap your energy at times. Each day they give more than 100 per cent in an effort to ensure that the Jamaica Observer provides Jamaicans with credible information that will help them make decisions that are important to them and the country.

“That we won the Journalist of the Year and Young Journalist of the Year awards in the same year speaks to the depth and quality of our team members, and I can only add my congratulations to the awardees Racquel Porter and Sharlene Hendricks, respectively, who have grown tremendously over the past few years. My congratulations also to HG Helps, Anika Richards and Sherdon Cowan. You all have made the O Team proud,” said Davidson.

Other awardees who stood out included Gladstone Taylor from The Gleaner, who won awards for three categories: Aston Rhoden Award for News Photography, Errol Harvey Award for Human Interest Photography, and the Errol Harvey Award for Human Interest Photography.

Anika Robinson and Jayson Moo Young from Business Access TV won the awards for Best TV Feature/Documentary, while Moo Young won the Ken Dawson Award for Videography. Also, Karen Madden from TVJ won the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for Sports in the electronic category.

In the judges’ report, Patrick Harley said that this year there was a reasonable number of entries in most categories, compared to previous years, and that “the quality of the submissions was generally good and the competition was very close in most categories”.

Harley noted that the submissions were sieved through a two-tier evaluation system, in which more than 220 entries made it to the second round for consideration.

This year was also the first year that the PAJ accepted entries electronically, which Harley noted made the evaluation process less tedious for the panel of judges. He also encouraged smaller media entities to submit their stories for consideration.

Submissions were judged on how well-written they were, thoroughly researched, and their impact.

“Entries were dominated by the major media houses, and that is expected, but we would like to see submissions from some of the small media houses because some of them are doing really good work,” said Harley.

The winners across the 20 categories were:

Racquel Porter– Journalist of the year, Jamaica Observer

Stevian Simmonds – President’s Award for Investigative Journalism, Nationwide News Network

Sharlene Hendricks – Young Journalist of the Year, Jamaica Observer

Karen Madden – Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for Sports (electronic), TVJ

Sherdon Cowan – Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for Sports (print), Jamaica Observer

Andre Laidley – Hector Bernard/Theodore Sealy Award for News (electronic), TVJ News

HG Helps – Hector Bernard/Theodore Sealy Award for News (print), Jamaica Observer

Christopher Serju – Best Human Interest Story, The Gleaner

Kelesha Williams – Certificate of Merit, Best Human Interest Story, TVJ

Kalilah Reynolds – Carlton Alexander Award for Business & Finance, Nationwide News

Danae Hyman – Best Breaking News Coverage, The Gleaner

Abka Fitz-Henley – Best Breaking News Coverage, Certificate of Merit, Nationwide News

Paul Clarke – Carl Wint Award for Best Feature Story (print), The Gleaner

Vaughn Davis – Carl Wint Award for Best Feature Story (electronic), Jamaica Information Service

Anika Robinson and Jayson Moo Young – Best TV Feature/Documentary, Business Access TV

Natalie Campbell – Best Radio Feature/Documentary, IRIE FM

Dionne Jackson Miller – Certificate of Merit for Best Radio Feature/Documentary, RJR

Jayson Moo Young – Ken Dawson Award for Videography, Business Access TV

Gladstone Taylor – Aston Rhoden Award for News Photography, The Gleaner

Gladstone Taylor – Junior Dowie Award for Sports Photography, The Gleaner

Gladstone Taylor – Errol Harvey Award for Human Interest Photography, The Gleaner

David Salmon – Morris Cargill Award for Opinion Journalism, The Gleaner

Anthony Morgan – Digicel Award for Technology, Jamaica Information Service

Jevon Minto – Excellence in Reporting on the Environment, Dialogo Chino

Andrew Laidley – Award for Excellence in Reporting on Health and Wellness, TVJ

Janella Precius – Excellence in Reporting on Agriculture, TVJ News

Anika Richards – UNICEF Award for Excellence in reporting on Children’s Right, Certificate of Merit, Jamaica Observer

Racquel Porter – UNICEF Award for Excellence in reporting on Children’s Right, Jamaica Observer