Founding Editor-In-Chief of The Fourth Estate nominated for international award

The founding Editor-In-Chief of The Fourth Estate, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has been nominated for the Norbert Zongo African Prize for Investigative Journalism (PAJI-NZ).

Mr Awuni’s story; The Licensed Sex Predator, which was in two parts and exposed a predatory ‘doctor’ who uses his office to abuse patients who visit his facility for physiotherapy services, has been nominated for the online category, while The COVID-19 spraying scandal initiated by President Nana Akufo-Addo has been nominated for the TV category.
The story revealed how Ghana’s President authorised a separate contract for the fumigation and disinfection of schools and markets to be awarded to a sanitation company during COVID-19 was not backed by science but by political interest, particularly when that company was already being paid for the same contract with all district assemblies across the country.

Mr Awuni has been nominated alongside nine other journalists for the two categories from eight countries in Africa.

“It’s good to be named as a finalist in entries submitted from 29 countries. It speaks to the quality of the journalism we have done at The Fourth Estate and how that compares with some of the best on the continent,” Mr Awuni said of his nomination.

This award is aimed at rewarding the work of African journalists who have carried out high-quality investigations into corruption, organised crime, human rights violations, governance, environmental crime, and terrorism, in the print, radio, television, and online media.

This is the second time Mr Awuni has been nominated for this prestigious award, which celebrates the achievement of murdered Burkinabe investigative journalist, Norbert Zongo.
In 2021, Mr Awuni was the first runner-up for the television category for his story, Contracts for Sale.

Aside from this, the two stories were nominated for the People Journalism Prize for Africa and the global One World Media awards, organised by the UK-based One World Media Foundation in 2022.

As the founding Editor-In-Chief of The Fourth Estate, Mr Awuni has trained and led a team of dedicated and enterprising journalists who focus on human rights, environment, anti-corruption, and health reporting among others.

Meanwhile, Mr Awuni has commenced his fellowship at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in the United States of America.