Reuters sweeps top African news awards

The Reuters team in Africa has won outstanding recognition in the most prestigious business news awards for the continent – winning the prizes for Media of the Year, Best Business Feature and Best Infrastructure Feature at the Diageo Awards.

Reuters has been in Africa for more than a century and has been investing to strengthen coverage as African markets become more dynamic and draw rapidly growing interest from foreign institutions and local players.

Tired and negative stereotypes of Africa have never had a place on the Reuters file and the Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards paid tribute to the work of our journalists in delivering ever more sophisticated news for business and financial markets.

There were a record 1,223 nominations for the Diageo awards. Announcing the winners, Nick Blazquez, President, Diageo Africa, emphasized the importance placed by the judges on journalism that gave a fair and balanced picture of Africa.

The award for Media of the Year went to the team of more than 75 journalists working full time for Reuters in Africa, reporting from bureaus stretching from Cape Town to Cairo.

Reuters Special Report on Brazil in Africa won in the Best Business Feature Category. It told how Brazil’s cultural ties and different way of doing business in Africa were giving it a possible edge over other emerging powers in the scramble for the continent.

A Special Report on South African mining won in the Best Infrastructure Feature category. The report looked at how South Africa was failing to capitalize on the global commodities boom.

As well as rewarding the strength of Reuters reporting from Africa, the awards were recognition for our Enterprise reporting – longer form journalism which is allowing Reuters journalists to shed more light and examine subjects in greater depth than ever before.