US journalist to be guest speaker at Fair Play Awards

When the milestone 10th Anniversary Jamaica Broilers Group Fair Play Awards are presented on September 14, entrants for the 2009-2010 awards and other guests will also be treated to a presentation by Richard Prince - an award-winning columnist for the prestigious Maynard Institute of Journalism Education in California, USA.

Prince is the 2010 recipient of the Robert G. McGruder Award, which recognises the accomplishments of media professionals who encourage diversity in the field of journalism.

Past recipients of the McGruder award have included Leonard Pitts, Jr, Pulitzer Prize winner and columnist for The Miami Herald, in 2006.

Prince will speak on 'Ethics in the Profession of Journalism: The Value-added Benefits for National Development'.

Prince, who writes 'Richard Prince's Journalisms' - a three-times-weekly column on diversity issues in the news media, for the website of the Maynard Institute of Journalism Education - also works part-time as a copy editor at the Washington Post.

He was founding editor of Black College Wire, a news service for black college students that aims to improve college newspapers and increase their frequency.

Among his other professional activities, he chairs the diversity committee of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, and for many years chaired the media monitoring committee of the National Association of Black Journalists.

He continues to moderate the National Association of Black Journalist's listserv.

The annual Fair Play Awards provide incentives for local journalists to improve their investigative and reporting skills, to intensify their commitment to their profession of journalism and, in achieving excellence, to better fulfil the critical role journalists are required to play in providing a check on the abuse of power by any segment of the society.

The 10th anniversary year of the awards will also mark the first occasion on which the increased cash prize of $250,000 will be presented for the Fair Play Award - Electronic.