There's probably not been enough entries.
Or probably not enough journalists within Africa who actually knew about it for a long enough period to be able to enter.
Journalists within South Africa (like me) who usually write about this Awards certainly haven't been getting any information or press releases about it like in past years and in November I remarked RIGHT HERE that as a result, there might not be a lot of South African entries for this competition this year.
Now, after initially saying the entry deadline of 31 January will definitely not be extended, the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards 2012 has suddenly extended the entry deadline to 22 February.
Speaking as a journalist who used to cover this, and covered it thoroughly in past years and attended the award ceremonies (until MultiChoice didn't bother, or maybe didn't want to, invite me last year) something seems to have very seriously gone wrong with the communication aspect of the latest CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards 2012. It's simply way below par the professional image the competition usually tries to convey.
Now with the sudden deadline extension, its again not like I or other journalists within South Africa who cover television was actually told by either CNN International or MultiChoice South Africa or anyone else for that matter that the deadline's been extended. Who knows who's in charge of actually managing the actual communications aspect with media and press of this journalism competition?
After I've been pro-actively covering this premiere awards event for years that actually supports journalism in Africa - which is a very worthwhile cause - I think I'm at the point where I'm just going to sit back and do nothing if I get nothing.
