A Washington based international centre has nominated Sobi FM prominent correspondent, Dare Akogun for the 2020 Knight International Journalist Award.
The Washington, United States of America based Centre – is a nonprofit organisation that has worked with more than 140,000 journalists from 180 countries – prides itself as working at the nexus of journalism and technology, by building expertise and storytelling skills of reporters worldwide.
Each year, ICFJ honors two outstanding winners for their pioneering coverage or media innovations which have made a significant impact on the lives of people around the world. Candidates can be reporters, editors, technologists, media managers, citizen journalists or bloggers.
Award winners receive a trip to the United States, where they will be honored at ICFJ’s Awards Dinner on November 12, 2020.
A nomination letter addressed to the journalist on Friday January 31, 2020, signed by the Director of ICFJ Knight Fellowship, Jennifer Dorroh, and obtained by our THE INFORMANT247, congratulated the pressman for being among the nominees for 2020.
A Master Degree holder in Mass communication from the university of Lagos, Dare Akogun has over 8 years experience in the media that transcend both print and broadcast.
He has attended several conferences, workshops and trainings on media, among which is a two weeks intensive deep dive course on oil and Gas Reporting for 25 selected journalists in Nigeria, sponsored by the National Resource Governance Institute held at the Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.
He is the brain behind the idea of the now popular trend of radio stations in Kwara state, giving live reports and updates of electioneering process, when he proposed to his media organisation (Sobi FM) and would later be made the field coordinator for the first live election coverage to be aired on radio in Kwara state in 2017.
The success of this epoch making event made the station to send him and a colleague to cover the Ekiti and Osun states gubernatorial election in 2018, as the only radio station from Kwara, and were able to bring first hand information to the door steps of Kwara State residents.
Also as an anchor of weekly educative and interactive program on Sobi fm ‘Home Front’, he has been able to educate and enlighten the general public on their rights as a citizen and as a major stakeholder in the development of Kwara State and Nigeria.