The awards have indicated that judging will start on Monday, 27 July. The judging panel will virtually determine the 2020 winners of the premier awards for journalism in the country.
As with previous years, the category with the most entries is the
Feature Writing category, which in 2020 nearly doubled from the number of entries from 2019, says the awards. Following this was the
News category, which has also seen an increase in entries.
The
News Photography,
Lifestyle,
Columns / Editorial and
Enterprise News categories were also well entered this year, according to the awards. This is only the second year since the
Lifestyle category was introduced and the awards have indicated that the category is already popular.
The judging panel will review the 14 categories, as well as the
South African Story of the Year,
Journalist of the Year,
Upcoming / Rising Star of the Year and the
Lifetime Achiever Award (
Allan Kirkland Soga Achievement Award).
"Winners all receive R15 000, a trophy and a certificate," says Lizeka Mda, the 2020 awards' convener judge. "It is the continued sponsorship of the awards of Standard Bank that allows for this cash reward and we are very grateful for this, especially in these difficult times."
The judging panel includes:
- Dinesh Balliah
- Henry Jeffreys
- Mike Siluma
- Tyrone August
- Phindile Xaba
- Shona Bagley
- Pippa Green
- Liesl Louw-Vaudran
- Mary Papayya
- Ryland Fisher
- Neo Ntsoma
- Maud Motanyane
- Themba Hadebe
- Gus Silber, and
- Thabo Leshilo.
The awards event will be held virtually on Thursday, 15 October.
For more information, visit
www.pdmedia.org.za. You can also follow the
Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards on
Facebook.