THE YOUNG JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR COMPETITION - 2013
PRIZE GIVING CEREMONY
04 July 2013
Speech of Honourable Minister
Mrs Dawn Long, Director British Council
Mr Kiran Ramsahye, Chief Editor, Le Matinal
Mr Ramlugun, Acting Senior Chief Executive,
Ministry of Education and Human Resources.
Dr Taher, Chief Technical Officer,
Directors and high officials from this Ministry, Rectors,
Distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen and dear students
Let me first of all bid you a very Good Afternoon. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you ladies and gentlemen and specially the students and the prize winners to this Prize Giving Ceremony.
We have gathered today to celebrate the achievement of our students who entered for the Young Journalist for the Year Competition which has been organised jointly with British Council and Le Matinal Newspaper.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources has given its full support and collaboration in making this initiative of the British Council a reality today.
The Young Journalist for the Year Competition is at its fourth edition this year .No doubt, this creative writing competition has built on the success of the previous years’ editions. The focus this year was, once again, on writing article for a newspaper on the two themes which were open to two categories:
· Cultural diversity :Myths and reality
· Climate Change, the implications for Mauritius
In this information-driven age we have seen a decline in the reading and writing culture. However, we have seen the active participation of many schools and over years, there are more and more students showing their interest in this competition.
At our Ministry’s level much is being done to promote this culture. Since a couple of years we have activity periods which caters for successful running up of the Book Clubs in secondary schools, “Budding Writers and Ecrivains en herbe” and“ Silence on Lit project” in primary schools.
With the collaboration of The British Council and the English Speaking Union, literary activities are organised on a yearly basis, to promote the English Language.
The President’s Fund for Creative Writing in English which operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Arts and Culture also promotes creative writing skills of Mauritian Creative Writers in English.
Our students regularly participate in essay,poem recitation, debate and other competitions at national as well at international level. Since decades our students participate in the Commonwealth Essay writing and SADC Essay Competitions.
Indeed our students’ qualities have been recognised at national as well as international level.
With the edition of the Young Journalist of the Year Competition, our aim is to encourage students to think creatively and critically about contemporary issues and to promote the skill of journalism. Furthermore, to encourage high rate of participation, prizes are even awarded to schools submitting the highest number of entries.
Very few will argue about the value and utility of certain academic disciplines. Those who study medicine learn how to prolong human life. Those who study business learn how to multiply money and employ people. Those who study criminal justice are ostensibly involved in the work of making the community a safe place to live in.
However, the value and utility of creative writing is less apparent. It’s true that there is but a small handful of lucky and talented professional writers whose work is not such a lucrative affair.
But the creative writing classroom offers an invitation to adult life. It is an opportunity where the exploration of questions of needs, wants, desires, longings, withholdings, secrets and trouble of all varieties, can yield new understandings of what it is to be an individual.
I am impressed by you dear students, young people who have artistic creativity. We already have a phenomenal creative writing community to which our prize winners of the Young Journalist of the Year Competition will definitely contribute.
It is great to see that our schools have so many incredibly talented students who use their brain to improve their intelligence and help them to learn how to think better.
Creative writing can give out information in more interesting ways, and can help make learning more fun. Creative writing helps you to be a better writer, because practice makes perfect, in writing, just as in any other skill.
Mauritius is an open society where the right to information decreed by the United States is fully exercised and a new generation of journalists is imperative to fulfill the demand of society to the right to information.
It is a reality that information plays an integral and pivotal role in what we call the “news industry” which is growing in importance today in our globalized media, reaching thousands of people instantaneously.
But the task of the new generation is to initiate a new type of journalism, not confined only to providing information but to generating wisdom in our society through the writing of articles.
Mauritius enjoys the freedom of the press, going back to the 19th century and has a vibrant journalistic tradition, unique in the African continent.
You, the young generation, are called upon to build on these foundations and consolidate these traditions with an engaging spirit respecting the basic ethics of journalism.
The career of journalism is multi-faceted, the young writer can deal with many aspects of society and you should be committed in the search for social justice and the betterment of the human condition.
It is indeed a challenge for the young generation to embrace the noble task of journalism and to voice out their opinion to promote truth regarding public matters, to uphold justice, to avoid sensationalism and distortion of facts in the fight for human dignity.
The Young Journalist for the Year Competition is a ray of hope for our Mauritian society, proving through your participation that there exists in our society, young people who are ready to engage themselves in expressing ideas and opinions fearlessly.
The Young Journalist for the Year Competition is an opportunity for you to give an outlet to your inner talents and who knows, in the process, geniuses are likely to be born. Dear students, each of you have the potential to be a great Mauritian writer who can make a name and why not like the noble prize winner, Jean Marie LE CLEZIO
Shakespeare said: “words, words, words..” in Hamlet.
Words can indeed change a society and the fate of man!
I would end on this note.
I take the opportunity to congratulate all the prize winners, their educators and their Rectors. My deepest appreciation goes to British Council and Le Matinal newspaper for this laudable initiative.
Thank you for your attention