Daily Graphic’s Timothy Ngnenbe wins top environment reporting award

A senior reporter at the Daily Graphic, Timothy Ngnenbe, has been adjudged the best news reporter for his exceptional environmental reporting in terms of galamsey at the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) Awards 2025 held in Accra last Monday.

His story, "Killer galamsey pits: how young couple lost twins", emerged as the best news report after beating off competition from several other applicants from the print, broadcast and online media.

The winning story highlighted how a young couple lost their twins at Morkwa, a farming community in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District in the Central Region, after they fell into an uncovered galamsey pit.

The story threw more light on other instances of untimely deaths from uncovered galamsey pits and called on duty bearers to take steps to halt illegal mining while taking steps to reclaim degraded landscapes. 

Event

The MFC brings together 51 countries from six continents to promote media freedom through advocacy, diplomatic interventions, legal reforms, events and funding.

As part of this year's World Media Freedom Day, the German Embassy and the British High Commission launched the MFC Awards for journalists who report on the environment in Ghana to apply.

Apart from Mr Ngnenbe, two journalists from the Fourth Estate, Seth Bokpe and Edmund Agyeman Boateng, jointly won the Long Report category of the awards, while Clara Mlano of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) won the best long report for broadcast. 

The awards ceremony

The plaques for winners were presented at the World Press Freedom Day reception held at the Residence of the German Ambassador, Daniel Krull. 

The event was organised by the German Embassy in collaboration with the British High Commission and attended by the leadership of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the Minister of Government Communications, Felix Ofosu Kwakye; members of the Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey, including its Convener, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey; civil society organisations (CSOs) in the environment space, and a section of journalists.

Also present at the event were the Chairperson of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Kathleen Addy, and the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Prof. Nana Ama Browne Klutse. 

Capacity building

At the event, Prof. Klutse commended the awardees for their invaluable contribution to environmental stewardship and called for more support to journalists to put the spotlight on environmental crimes.

She said since environmental protection was a shared responsibility, she would work closely with the media to create awareness and educate members of the public on best practices within the environmental space.

Particularly, she said the EPA was committed to training journalists on environmental reporting to help deal with galamsey.

She underscored the need for all stakeholders to get involved in the galamsey fight to ensure that water bodies were made clean and forests restored.

For her part, Ms Addy said the media had been phenomenal in the galamsey fight as journalists had done well to get people to understand issues surrounding the menace.

However, she said the work of journalists needed to be augmented by community members taking action against galamsey.

"When communities come together to work against galamsey in their area, no powerful forces can be powerful enough to defeat them," she said. 

Safety issues

An environmental investigative journalist with the Multi-Media Group, Erastus Asare Donkor, said journalism had done a lot in terms of public education and advocacy for policy change and strengthening of regulations on the environment.

He said although the work by journalists was not at the desired level, the media deserved commendation for their unflinching role in the galamsey fight.

"We want to get to the point where about 80 per cent of media houses are consistently talking about galamsey," he said, urging more journalists to venture into environmental reporting.

Mr Donkor called on the government to provide security for journalists to report on galamsey without fear.