Siemens to honour excelling journalists in technology

SIEMENS South Africa will later this year honour journalists reporting on information and computer technologies through its Siemens Profile Awards.

The company has started receiving entries for the accolades.

“In an increasingly complex and globalised world, science and its spin-off technologies play an important role in the daily lives of people across the planet. There is hardly any aspect of life in the modern world that does not rely on technology, yet despite its ubiquitous nature, the role of science and technology is not widely recognised or understood.

“The Siemens Profile Awards, which recognise excellence in science and technology reporting, were instituted to make science and technology issues more accessible to the man-in-the-street,” said the company in a statement.

The awards were launched in South Africa in 2003 with the support of Siemens AG in Germany. They were later extended to the rest of Africa.

Last year, the company said, Siemens Profile Awards attracted 264 entries from 17 African countries in four languages, which it said made them the premier science and technology journalism awards in Africa.

“As more African journalists equip themselves with an understanding of science and technology, they are also beginning to investigate the root and branch of this great developmental revolution, which promises so much for the continent, and their investigations and reports are making the field more accessible to millions of Africans,” said Siemens South Africa.

The company said the awards recognised the role journalists were playing in the science and technology sectors across the continent and encouraged journalists in the field to enhance their reporting in research, quality reporting and individual journalistic flair–ITNewsAfrica.