Channel 5 Wins Big at C.B.U. Media Awards Ceremony
The 2022 C.B.U. Media Awards Ceremony took place in Antigua last evening and, as has been Channel Five’s tradition over the years, we captured eleven awards in nine of the categories. News Five’s Duane Moody snagged three of the awards and got two special mentions for stories he submitted. Reporter Paul Lopez also won an award and received special mention in the same category for which his story won. Videographers Rick Romero, Chris Mangar, Kenroy Michael, and Joel Westby also captured awards for stories they edited, and Producer, Viannie Reyes won Best Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Television. Here’s News Five’s Marion Ali with a report on the big wins.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The smiles kept on through the night for the media team at Great Belize Television, Channel Five on Tuesday night at the 2022 CBU Media Awards Ceremony in Antigua. Our esteemed reporter, Duane Moody and Video Editor, Rick Romero won the story in the Best Investigative Report for television category. They did so with the story: “Tracing Illegal Firearms in Belize – Origins and the Interventions.”
Duane and videographers, Kenroy Michael and Rick Romero won the award for Best Climate Change Investigative Report or television. Their winning piece was a story titled: Is Monkey River Drowning? Duane and videographer, Chris Mangar also snagged the award for the Best Climate Change News Item for a story titled Vulnerability and Livelihood Assessment for the Fisheries Sector. Duane and Video Editor, Kenroy Michael also received a certificate and a special mention for another story in this category, titled: A Space for Children and Youth at COP-27. An elated Duane Moody was in Antigua to receive his awards and shared via Zoom today that he was pleasantly surprised by all the accolades.
Duane Moody
Duane Moody, Winner, C.B.U. Awards
“You know, Mar, it is totally unexpected because we are not beat reporters. We’re always doing all these different types of stories on a daily basis. And sometimes, well, recently, I’ve had the opportunity to, of course, focus a lot on climate change stories and it paid off. There were four awards in climate change for TV, and we got two of the four awards. This is the – well I got two of the four, and then this is the second consecutive time that I won the Best Investigative, and it’s totally like – I’m speechless because you know, this story was entered into a national competition, and it didn’t – it wasn’t even shortlisted. And then I said, you know what, let me try my luck and I submitted it for this regional award, and it won! And so it’s almost like a sense of validation that, you know – totally unexpected.”
We also captured the awards for the Best story in Financial Literacy Journalism for television, titled: “Learning Financial Literacy for the Future.” That was produced by reporter, Paul Lopez and Rick Romero. Joel Westby and Kenroy Michael received special mention for the story called “Young Entrepreneurs Prepare for Super Sale” under the same category. Paul says the job has revealed his knack for money matters.
Paul Lopez
Paul Lopez, Winner, C.B.U. Awards
“Who knew? I did some trainings through Channel 5, in terms of financial literacy, and that has kinda given me some insight into how to navigate those stories, and as opportunities arise to take part in covering these types of events and these types of stories, I would volunteer to do them and of course it has led to this award to two years in a row.”
Marion Ali
“How do you make finance interesting enough to win an award?”
Paul Lopez
“I mean, they have this saying that says money makes the world go round and it’s true. I think money is involved in so many aspects of our lives and at times, it’s hard to understand math and it’s hard to break down math and people are afraid of numbers. But really when you get into the story of numbers, you realize that it’s all of our stories.”
Great Belize Productions and Rick Romero also won the award for Best Climate Change Public Service Spot for Television, with a piece called UNICEF Climate Change in Dangriga. We also won the award for the Best Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic for television. That piece called “Beyond COVID” was produced by Viannie Reyes and Rick Romero. Viannie told us she, like Duane, was taken by surprise.
Viannie Reyes
Viannie Reyes, Winner, C.B.U. Awards
“I did not only submit one piece of the production that I’ve completed for the past year. I also sent in about two or three different pieces. And I was striving to have a specific piece win the award, but I’m still grateful and thankful for the fact that I overlooked the work – the dedication and the commitment that we had with the Beyond COVID piece that we did. So that won its award in the COVID-19 coverage, the best COVID-19 coverage I was striving for. Our great piece that was totally unplanned it was not organized, a product that I could say that we actually sat down and said, okay, this is what we’ll be doing for the day, which was the Hurricane Lisa coverage. I started here at Channel 5 in July of 2022, and that specific piece was produced in September 2022, I didn’t know – I didn’t know what production was, and I had no experience with it, but I can honestly say that that specific production on that day, the hurricane, the September celebrations, and every other production that we have done throughout that half of year, definitely makes me proud to be a part of Channel Five and the work that we push out every day.”
Channel Five also won the award for the Best Christmas Card 2022, produced by Rick Romero and Joel Westby, as well as the Best Commercial Spot for Television. Marion Ali for News Five.
