Award-winning journalist joins the 04 summer course

An award-winning Ghanaian journalist who uncovered flaws in food production that could trigger potentially fatal conditions will be joining the Thomson Foundation summer course in August.

Kingsley Obeng-Kyereh won a place on the course after being named Ghana Journalist of the Year in a competition run by the Ghana Journalists Association and sponsored by the pharmaceuticals multinational Unilever.

He spent almost four years investigating the unseen danger lurking at the base of some households' cooking pots for the national broadcaster GBC.

Kingsley's award-winning investigation described how heavy metals may be leaching into people's foods slowly from saucepans and corn mill grinding wheels made from harmful materials, including lead.

His report revealed that a simple way of spotting this danger is when the corn dough turns brown - around three days after being mixed with water.

One doctor quoted in his report suggested that lead may be linked to high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks and kidney diseases all conditions on the increase in Ghana.

His story won the best science report at the Ghana Journalist of the Year competition and he subsequently went on to win the overall journalist of the year award.

Kingsley will join journalists from across the globe on the annual summer course including Taiwo Obe from Nigeria who gained a place after being awarded a professional fellowship by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission to develop his career.

Watershed' The training will mark another watershed in my professional development, said Kingsley. The rigour of the sessions will be a slight departure from my daily routine and will certainly offer a refreshing change from what I have been used to.

Kingsley said he is looking forward to meeting fellow journalists on the course and the cross-exchange of experiences and ideas it will bring.

At the moment, Kingsley works mostly in radio with occasional forays into television. He hopes the course will lead to more opportunities in television at GBC in the future.

He also hopes to be able to pass on his skills to less experienced colleagues on his return and that the training will offer him a platform to contribute to GBC partner stations outside Ghana.

Kingsley said that broadcasting in Ghana has changed in recent years with more competition from social media and local language broadcasters, which has made many journalists up their game.

The broadcasting scene is really exciting but we can always make do with more professionalism in keeping to ethical tenets.

A multi-skilled journalist is an asset to his or her organisation, he added. In an age of convergence it is always good to have skills that cut across different areas in the media. Having skills in multimedia platforms is certainly a plus.

LINK:	http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/news-and-features/2014/02/04/award-wi...
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