Sen. Florence Ita-Giwa, a former National Assembly Liaison Officer to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has promised to reward the best journalist in Cross River with a car prize.

Ita- Giwa made the pledge in Calabar on Friday at the inauguration of a committee of NUJ in the state to organise an award in memory ofIta-Giwa’s mother.

The prize is being awarded annually in memory of late Mrs Beatrice Ita, journalist and mother of  Ita-Giwa.

“Beatrice Ita Best Journalist Award”, was instituted in 1992 by Ita-Giwa and it ran annually till 2005.

It was, however, rested between 2006 and 2009 because of alleged poor management by the state council of NUJ.

However, Ita-Giwa decided to “resurrect” the award to encourage excellence among journalists.

She urged journalists in the state to brace up to the challenge of robust media practice and management skills.

Inaugurating the eight-member committee at the NUJ secretariat, the NUJ chairman, Mr Oden, charged media workers in the state to participate in the competition.

He told the committee that the award was open to only registered journalists in both electronic and print media, who had paid their professional fees up to date.

He announced that the committee had between two and three months to organise the award and appealed to the members to attach premium to “quality copies” in selecting the best journalist for the state during the period.

Responding, Dr Theresa Essien, the chairman of the committee and General Manager of Cross River Broadcasting Corporation, expressed gratitude to NUJ for collaborating with Ita-Giwa to revive the award.

She also commended Ita-Giwa for honouring her mother with the institution of the award and described the late Ita as “remarkable and a legend in journalism, especially being one of the early female practitioners in the country”.

She said that the committee would discharge its assignment well to justify the confidence reposed in the members.