A reporter for the ground-breaking “Hotline” radio show, launched in Ghana with the help of two Knight Fellows, has won the top prize for radio journalism in Africa.

Anny Osabutey, a reporter for Joy FM, a popular station in the Ghanaian capital Accra, received the the Radio General News Award during the CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist Awards in Lusaka, Zambia this year.

The winning entry was a radio documentary, “Squatters Paradise,” which chronicled the daily struggles faced by inhabitants of Accra’s largest slum. The piece exposed the squalid living conditions of residents of the slum, Old Fadama, nicknamed Sodom and Gommorah after the biblical town destroyed by God as punishment for wickedness.

Osabutey credited Knight Fellows Sylvia Vollenhoven and Sputnik Kilambi for coaching him to produce in-depth radio features. The Hotline show, a weekly program that focuses primarily on social issues, was launched in 2010 under the guidance of Vollenhoven, who trained Joy FM reporters to produce documentaries. Kilambi followed Vollenhoven as a Knight Fellow at the station, where she trained a producer for the show and coached reporters on their stories.

Hotline has transformed how social issues are reported in Ghana. The two fellows organized a network of journalists in the nation, mentoring over 20 reporters in the process. The show seeks to tackle complex issues through in-depth investigative reporting, a format that is becoming more popular in the nation.

Osabutey says Kilambi had a great impact on how he approached the Sodom and Gommorah story.

“She made me think much deeper than just scratching the surface” with this story, Osabutey says. Though he is not the first journalist to report on the slums in Ghana, Osabutey’s story drew acclaim for giving voice to the people living in the slums, allowing them to tell their own stories - a practice unheard of in the nation.

Despite a high level of press freedom in Ghana, considered to have one of the freest media in Africa, in-depth and investigative reporting has been lacking in the nation, according to Kilambi.

Her goal with Hotline, she says, was to push their journalists “to think out of the box, to see stories in different situations, to see the human angle but equally the context and background, to properly research a story before producing it, to be prepared and willing to go the extra mile, and always keep a critical spirit.”

Last year, a reporter for Hotline won the award for Ghana’s Best Journalist. Coupled with Osabutey’s award, Kilambi hopes that the ratings will only rise for the station, and that other journalists will feel the need to stay competitive – and get out of their comfort zones.

“As someone said,” she adds, “it’s difficult to win awards for merely covering press conferences.” And Sodom and Gommorah is no press conference.

The residents of the slum have no access to running water or electricity. Nearby factories pollute the water and soil with toxic waste. Disease and malnutrition are rampant. And with the constant threat of violence from local gangs and armed robbers, most tend to avoid going to the slum – but not Osabutey.

“Do you think human beings should live in these conditions?” Osabutey asks listeners.

His story received high praise from African media luminaries. Zipporah Musau, former managing editor of magazines at the Standard Group, commended Osabutey's work.

“The beauty of this story is the energy that this reporter puts into reporting his story,” she said on CNN. “The emotions are coming out. He is a good storyteller. You can actually visualize what he is talking about.”

The award, Osabutey says, taught him that “hard work really pays,” and that “quality journalism is always worth it.”

“But it really humbles me,” he adds. “It tells me that I need to work a little harder.”