Now in its 22nd year, the annual OneWorld Media Awards seek to recognize excellence in media coverage that best reflects the social, political and cultural life of people in the developing world. At this year’s ceremony at Kings Hall on 22 June, Lord Malloch-Brown called on philanthropists to ‘be investors in the media sector of developing countries’ where the role of the local media plays a critical part in driving political change.

Winners of the awards included Makutano Junction Project, a Kenyan soap opera which attracts over 7 million viewers and acts as a means to disseminate valuable information to the public. The project, which won the award for New Media, is now also being used to promote global learning and awareness of everyday African life in schools around the UK. In accepting the award Kate Lloyd Morgan, UK Director of Mediate, which runs the project, emphasized the benefits of using a good media product to challenge perceptions here in the UK.