TVC News Receives two major international awards

Nigeria-based TVC News has scooped two (2) major international awards only months after the channel launched.

Reporter Vivienne Irikefe won top prize from over 200 submissions in a competition on the coverage of vaccines & immunisations organised by the International Center for Journalists in Washington DC.

Vivienne’s report focused on Nigeria’s failure to vaccinate all new-born children against polio, the only country in Africa where polio is still endemic, with a troubling increase in recent years. With stirring images and powerful interviews, she drove home the horrors of the disease by profiling a victim who couldn’t get a job because of the stigma of polio.

ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan said the coverage “served as a lesson to all on how to conquer devastating yet preventable diseases such as polio.”

In London meanwhile, TVC News was ‘highly commended’ at the 2013 annual awards of the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) for a report entitled ‘The Accused’ in the Investigative Documentary category. Reporter Katie Mark’s documentary told the harrowing story behind the ritual abuse and even killing of African children accused of being possessed by evil spirits.

TVC News was pipped for the top slot at the AIB awards by the UK’s Channel 4 (‘Dispatches’ veteran documentary team) in a strong field in which short-listed entries also included broadcasters from Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Asia.

TVC News Chief Executive, Nigel Parsons, said: “The awards further prove that the 24-hour pan-African news channel can favourably compete on the global scene.

TVC News has come a long way in a short time, and these awards are recognitions of the fantastic achievements of everyone at the channel.”

Celestine Umeibe