The editor of Nigeria’s Sunday Punch, Toyosi Ogunseye, has won the African Women in News Leadership Award, which was presented to her Friday night in Narobi, Kenya. She had won the 2014 Knight International Journalism Award in June.
Ogunseye, who is the paper’s youngest and first female editor in its 40 years history, has been recognised for her journalistic excellence and leadership among women in African newsrooms.
In the African Women in Leadership award, the judges praised her commitment to high quality ethical journalism, particularly her focus on the environment, justice and good governance.
Ogunseye said that winning the award has helped her “to remain true to the ideals I’ve always believed in, which is ethical, balanced investigative reporting.”
In a session at the World Editors Forum, Ogunseye shared her top tips for succeeding as a young woman journalist, encouraging her female counterparts never to let their gender stop them from achieving their goals.
The World Editors Forum asked her to rate her top ten tips for success as a young woman journalist with editorial leadership ambitions and these were the points she gave:
1. Do not let your gender restrict you from doing all you want to do
2. Do not allow anyone to tell you that gender is a barrier to success
3. Be outstanding: do better than everyone
4. Be dedicated
5. Do stories that are remarkable – stories that bring change in a small or big way
6. Re-invent yourself: go for regular training both locally and internationally. Training is mostly free for journalists
7. Surround yourself with mentors both in the industry and your organisation
8. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
9. Pray
10. Live: strive to be healthy within and without.
Ogunseye won the prestigious Knight International Journalism Award in June for her story on the environmental impact of effusions from a factory on the community.
Ogunseye attributes her successful career path to God’s grace, hard work, dedication, doing impactful journalism, having great mentors and working for a newspaper that believes gender is not an impediment to journalistic growth.
She started her journalism career in 2004 at The Sun newspaper and moved to News Star newspaper in 2007 as a senior correspondent. She joined Punch newspaper in 2009 and was the sub-assistant editor for news and politics till 2012.