Coordinator of Gender Links Botswana, Keabonye Ntsabane said yesterday that the competition has been cancelled to allow room for submissions for the Fourth Gender and Media awards to be held in Johannesburg on October 13-15 this year. She said the deadline for submissions was moved from May 1 to July 15, 2010. "This was to allow for coverage of the 2010 soccer world cup games," she explained.
Ntsabane said that only four people have forwarded submissions from Botswana but this is not surprising. "We are a small medium so it is not surprising. We cannot compete with big countries like Mauritius," she said. She added that gender issues are not taken seriously in Botswana, and that most media houses still do not have institutional policies of reporting on gender and HIV/AIDS. However, she is expecting at least 10 submissions from Botswana before the awards. Ntsabane said that the awards are for journalists and media practitioners and trainers, gender activists, media regulators and anyone who agrees with 'Making Every Voice Count, and Counting That it Does' - the GEMSA slogan. News articles, features, opinion pieces, commentaries and student papers talk shows and documentaries are eligible for the awards. However, only news and documentaries will be accepted from television.
