A twenty-eight-year-old television journalist and radio talk show host, Simon Kasyate, was on Saturday night adjudged Uganda’s Investigative Journalist of the Year, 2008. Simon’s television feature of a displaced family’s struggles to rebuild a shattered, previously blossoming country-side life, picked first prize from a field of 73 entries by 65 journalists. Only in April, this year, he had been assigned by NTV to cover the official signing of a government peace deal in Gulu, but with the programme called off at the last minute and without much of a notice, he decided to employ the genius in him – landing the touching story of a helpless but unyielding peasant family life which had patrons at an impressive 4th Annual Uganda Investigative Journalism Awards ceremony held at the imposing Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala, clapping in endless applause and admiration. Two women came close to the ultimate title though, with Leylah Ndinda of WBST picking 1st Runner-up and Barbara Among of New Vision, following up as 2nd Runner-up. The Uganda Investigative Journalism Awards, instituted in 2005, seeks to raise the profile and frequency of investigative journalism in the country in the areas of corruption, human rights and rule of law, as well as peace and conflict reporting. It is administered by the Department of Mass Communication, Makerere University in collaboration with Eastern Africa Media Institute and supported by DANIDA, NORAD and DFID. An elated Kasyate told Myjoyonline Editor, Isaac Yeboah, (In Uganda to attend the Africa Media Leadership Conference), that he prays for an era where professionalism will dominate media ownership and practice in Uganda to expedite the development of the country. “My argument has always been that the biggest threat to media practice in Uganda is not so much the State, but the absence of professional media owners and professional media practitioners. The combination of both will make the journalism practice in Uganda go a notch higher firstly, and then in East Africa.”