BBC News Online was best publication and The Times' feature, 'Worrying news found in Kenya's tea leaves', by Carl Mortished won the best published feature award.
Robert Guest, Africa Editor of The Economist, was voted best journalist reporting on Africa business.
The Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards are a first, aimed at improving the quality and quantity of international reporting on business in Africa, which is often negative. Diageo is represented in South Africa through a recently launched joint venture company with Heineken, and Namibia Breweries and trades locally under the name, brandhouse.
Thaninga Shope-Linney, General Manager for Communications at NEPAD Secretariat, applauded the initiative and hailed the Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards' "an innovative approach to encourage more prolific reporting of African business in international media".
Paul Walsh, CEO of Diageo plc said the group believed NEPAD could play a determining role in Africa's future and hoped the awards would encourage a fairer balance in reporting, thereby helping companies actually make the decision to invest in Africa.
Paul Boateng, UK Treasury Minister, reinforced the UK's commitment to the development of the continent, through the work of the Government's Commission for Africa. He also spoke of the need for organisations like NEPAD, the Commission for Africa and private companies to work together.
"It can only be good business for everybody if people do business in Africa. The importance of these Awards is that they encourage the availability of constructive and trustworthy information that can enable businesses to make rational and informed decisions about where they are to invest," Boateng said.
The 'Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards' are part of a broader initial three-year programme which Diageo is spearheading. The programme also seeks to develop journalistic capability in Africa.
Brandhouse / www.diageo.com
