Rob Amato of the Sunday Independent and the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) Jessica Pitchford won the Webber Wentzel Bowens (WWB) Legal Journalist of the Year Award for 2005 in the print and electronic media divisions respectively.
The Pretoria News‘s Zelda Venter and Victoria Cullinan of Carte Blanche were named runners-up in the print and electronic categories at a function held at WWB’s head office on Wednesday.
Amato, a columnist on the Sunday Independent, won the first prize in the print category after submitting four pieces that he wrote in his column Separation of Powers.
The judges said Amato displayed ”a very thorough grasp of the legal issues in a clear, factual and critical analytical fashion”.
”His articles inform and deepen a reader’s knowledge of sometimes complex legal and constitutional issues,” they said at the award ceremony on Wednesday.
Pitchford, who works for Special Assignment, an SABC programme focusing on investigative journalism, won the award for electronic media for the second time.
She was applauded by the judges for her work on Bad Girls Bad Cops and Curb the Vengeance, which covered the underdogs in the South African society — prostitutes and prisoners.
”The great strength of the documentary lies in securing our sympathy for unappealing subcultures … In the case of the prostitutes being victimised by police, the eternal hypocrisy of criminalising the sale of sex, but not the purchase of it, was very poignant.
”In the case of the prisoners and overcrowding in jails, the issue of awaiting-trial prisoners was dealt with, but the real impact was achieved in dealing with the little-known, if not unknown, issue of failure to administer the application of the law of parole to prisoners who qualify for parole.
”It highlighted a travesty of justice, a straightforward means to legitimately removing people from jail, and the sadness of opportunities lost,” the judges said of Pitchford’s work.
Chief Justice Pius Langa, who was the guest speaker at the function, said journalists should be protected from attempts to prevent them from reporting and commenting on events.
”The powerful tools at the disposal of journalists today, will, like any other tool, lose their utility if not used properly,” Langa said.
The conduct of journalists and judges should lead to a stronger democracy in South Africa.
”The conduct of both professions should lead to a stronger democracy and equal enjoyment of equal rights and freedom,” he said. — Sapa