Media personality, Yusuf Abramjee has been named the “Newsmaker of the Year” at the annual Financial Mail (FM) AdFocus 2011 Awards in Johannesburg last night.
Abramjee is Head of News and Current Affairs at Primedia Broadcasting, a Lead SA activist, Head of Crime Line and Chairman of the National Press Club.
The jurors praised Abramjee for his role in making the headlines for the right reasons. Neil van der Wiele, who chaired the AdFocus jury said many of South Africa’s advertising and communications leaders were part of the panel and the “external auditing of the jury was processed by Deloitte, bringing new levels of objectivity and integrity to the awards.”
In presenting the award, they sighted Abramjee’s role in spearheading the campaign against the Protection of Information Bill (POIB) as one of the reasons for honouring him. He led the Black Tuesday campaign the past week. He was praised for his respective roles at Crime Line and Lead SA (see attached for more background).
Abramjee said he was “humbled and honoured to receive the award. It’s been a team effort and I salute my colleagues and supporters. We will continue to make a difference wherever we can. We will do what’s right and fight for our rights. We all have to work together to create a better South Africa. We all need to Lead SA.”
