ICT Focus Finalist of Highway Africa Awards for Innovative Use of New Media in Africa

ICT Focus website was among the two finalists in the Corporate Category of the New Media Awards at the annual Highway Africa media conference at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. The awards ceremony was broadcasted live on SABC Africa on Tuesday 11 September 2007. The awards highlight the new media tools used in the information revolution that is taking place on the continent, despite technology challenges.

ICT Focus, a magazine that specializes on Information and Communications Technology, was launched on February 2002. Its website, www.ictfocus.info, is the only comprehensive source of information on ICTs in Ethiopia. On May 13th 2003, ICT Focus magazine received the first-ever AISI Media Award, organized by the Economic Commission for Africa, for which over 80 applications were submitted from all over Africa, in recognition of its outstanding work in print media that promotes the Information Society.

Winners in the Highway Africa New Media Awards were rewarded for the innovative use of new media on the continent. The awards, now an annual feature of the Highway Africa conference and Digital Citizens Indaba, serve to highlight the opportunities and challenges of using new media in Africa, as a publisher, developer or journalist.

The main aim of the annual Highway Africa gathering of the continent's journalists and editors is to make news more accessible on the continent by focusing on new media tools.