Nigerian Breweries Plc has announced that the 2015 Golden Pen Award ceremony will hold on Friday, October 30, 2015 at Lagos Oriental Hotel, Lekki Road, Victoria Island, Lagos, at 5pm.

According to the company, a total of 80 entries were received when submission closed for the award which focuses on published reports on Education, Youth Empowerment and Talent Development in 2014. The ceremony which is the 7th in the series will reward journalists who submitted outstanding reports in these subject areas.

At the ceremony, ‘The NB Golden Pen Reporter of the Year’ will be rewarded with a special statuette and N1 million, the ‘First runner up in the NB Golden Pen Reporter of the Year’ category will get a Special statuette and N300,000.00, while the ‘Second runner up NB Golden Pen Reporter of the Year’ will get a Special statuette and N200,000.00. ‘The NB Golden Pen Photojournalist of the Year’ will get a Special statuette and N300,000.00; the ‘First runner up NB Photojournalist of the Year’ will get a Special statuette and N250,000.00, while the ‘Second runner up NB Photojournalist of the Year’ will get a Special statuette and N200,000.00. A Special statuette and N500,000.00 will be awarded for the ‘NB Report of the year’. Winning journalists will also get high-end mobile devices as part of the reward package.

The company says that the award criteria of quality, professionalism and objectivity will remain the filters upon which entries will be shortlisted for the awards. The independent judging panel will analyse the reports and photographs for their Originality, News Value, Use of Resources, Credibility and factuality. Other areas of interest would include Info-graphics, Lay out/Headline, Clarity and Social impact.

Nigerian Breweries Plc inaugurated the Golden Pen Awards to promote professional and objective reportage of events in Nigeria. Since its inception, it has produced six winners in the Journalist of the Year category and several others in the Photo Journalist of the year category.

•Photo shows the Golden Pen Awards statuette.

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