LISTING and feting the Samia Kalamu Awards 2025 winners in Dar es Salaam on Monday night was a grand occasion reflecting the rigorous sieving of professional inputs of hundreds of Tanzanian journalists.

Organisers at the Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) and the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), the competition’s co-organisers, over 2,000 journalists had undergone extensive tailor-made training meant to enhance their skills in identifying and covering development-related issues.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who graced the event as chief guest, is meanwhile on record as having appealed to the Tanzanian media to place a premium on what could be safely described as professionally done work that inherently carried not only traditional “cardinal” attributes like truth and accuracy but also social and other ethics as well as national interests.

As widely documented in an array of Tanzanian and various other media outlets, The Guardian Limited has put up a truly proud showing in this inaugural edition of the SKA.

The 30-year-old publishing firm, currently home to two upmarket daily newspapers (The Guardian and Nipashe) and Digital Desk, has sparkled in a number of the competition’s categories.

The achievement has not come as a surprise or a miracle. All involved in the “countdown” to the memorable May 5 occasion will swear that it has not been smooth sailing, with months of sleepless days and nights and all.

Hear this from TGL Deputy Managing Director Jackson Paulo, when asked yesterday on the firm’s stand-out performance in the Samia Kalamu Awards 2025: “To us, this isn’t merely the scooping of prestigious professional awards in recognition of our efforts and commitment.”

A beaming Paulo added: “It confirms that the work we do every day, be it investigating, writing or editing, is guided by our corporate editorial guidelines. These lay stress on the need to work professionally so that we are seen, known, respected and appreciated as a media house caring for integrity and the need to amplify the voices of the people. Clearly, living up to these hugely demanding expectations in no easy task. It entails daunting challenges.”

TGL has won a total of four awards, three going to individual journalists (two from Nipashe and one from The Guardian) and the fourth to Nipashe in its corporate capacity – as an outstanding and distinguished publication.

With this, the DGM noted that TGL had emerged as the newspaper publishing company with the most awards, “and this fills us with great pride and inspires us to keep moving forward with enhanced zeal and energy”.

Specifically addressing readers of the two TGL publications, he said: “For our readers, this is a message that you have been all along trusting us for the right reasons. We promise to continue standing alongside you every day, increasingly building on the quality of whatever we are expected and supposed to deliver.”

He then turned to those who have been advertising with the firm, saying: “Your brands of choice are in safe, professional hands. They are platforms both respected and celebrated across our country and other parts of the sub-region. Those yet to part of our journey of hope should see this as an excellent time to consider partnering with our winning team so that we can achieve even greater success together.”

The DGM attributed the firm’s resounding SKA success to what he said was “the fact that we boast a passionate and dedicated team of experts, we listen to our readers, we serve our advertisers well, and every day we aim to deliver work of confirmed value and quality.”

“We don’t dwell on yesterday’s success. To us, every day is a new opportunity for us to take another step forward and do even better, irrespective of the challenges we encounter as we move on.”