INMA’s removal of the ‘Baby Trade’ story welcomed by SANEF

7 April 2022

The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) welcomes the removal of the “Baby Trade” story as a shortlisted piece from the International News Media Association (INMA) Global Media Awards.

The so-called docuseries, first published as a story by Pretoria News last June, was shortlisted in the category of “Best Use of Social Media”, a nomination SANEF strongly objected to.

Through correspondence to INMA, SANEF expressed its dissatisfaction with this problematic and flawed nomination. Until SANEF released its last statement, initial responses from INMA left a lot to be desired, as they did their bid to argue that the judges were “judging the quality of the social media campaign - not the story itself”.

We accept the latest statement which states: “Given the opportunity to review information from all parties related to the concerns raised, our international judges have reconsidered the entry, and it is no longer a finalist. We respect the jury’s decision,” stated Earl Wilkinson, INMA’s executive director.

We welcome this removal, and hope INMA will in the future attend better to shortlisted pieces, particularly those that threaten the trust in the media, and aim to work against ethical journalism as they purport disinformation through stories found to be a ‘hoax’ by their own internal ombudsman.

Issued by Monica Laganparsad, Acting Secretary-General, 8 April 2022