Top: The DayLight’s Esau J. Farr receives 1st place certificate from FDA Managing Director, J. Rudolph Merab, Sr. The DayLight/ Rebazar Forte
By Rebazar Forte
Monrovia – The DayLight has won two forest media awards for the best impactful stories reported this year.
Esau J. Farr, a senior reporter of the environmental online newspaper, The DayLight took first place in the competition, taking home a motorbike.
“This is the certificate of achievement and we hope you will do much better,” said Rudolph Merab, FDA Managing Director while presenting the first-place award to Farr. “After that, is a motorbike to help you travel the country to find the news.”
Aaron Geezay, a freelance writer with The DayLight, clinched second place and received a laptop computer.
Samuel Borlay of the Liberia Forest Media Watch and Radio Lofa completed the three places with a smartphone.
The DayLight’s two awards bring to four the newspaper has won from the last two editions. In 2022, it finished first and second places.
The Forest Media Awards is an annual event organized by the Liberia Media Center (LMC) that focuses on transparency and capacity building. It showcases the works of journalists reporting on the forestry sector of Liberia.
LMC is funded by the Multi-stakeholders Forest Governance and Accountability Project (MFGAP), which also funds The DayLight.
Farr is a Liberian journalist with at least 15 years of practical experience and has worked with several media institutions, including the New Republic.
Illegal mining
The winning story was captioned, “Illegal Miners Invade Community Forest.” It exposed the illegal mining activities of a company, which encroached on the Bondi Mandingo Authorized Community Forest. Less than three weeks after the publication, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) fined JM Mining Company US$95,000 for illegal activities in the area.
The vetting committee chose “Loggers Illegally Cut Logs for Unlawful Bridge,” as the second-best story of the year. The story uncovered a company’s unlawful bridge project between River Cess and Sinoe Counties.
Making a brief remark on behalf of his colleagues, Farr celebrated his first major media award.
“I take this award as a challenge and dedicate it to The DayLight and my dear wife, Oretha Bindah-Farr, who is not here with me due to family reasons,” Farr said.
