Jay Merriman-Mukoro- an annual award for radio students at Goldsmiths launched in his memory. Image: copyright Olivia Merriman-Mukoro

The Media and Communications Department of Goldsmiths, University of London has created annual award in the name of a former documentary producer who died in a tragic swimming accident last year.

43 year old Jay Merriman-Mukoro, who was from Battersea, was a creative radio and television programme maker who won a BBC scholarship to attend the MA Radio Programme in 2003-2004.

In April 2014 he lost his life in a drowning accident in Barbados just after beginning lecturing at Goldsmiths in sound and visual story telling.

Goldsmiths has set up an annual award available to its students studying radio worth £200 each year combined with online publication of their work on Jay’s memorial website.

Head of Radio, Professor Tim Crook said:

In his career Jay travelled the world from Africa to the USA to make programmes that gave voice to people not normally seen and heard in the mainstream media.
Jay combined a devotion to radio and sound with visual creativity.

He produced a five part series for BBC R4 interviewing people who had met Nelson Mandela. He also worked on important and landmark current affairs and documentaries. They included ‘Mixed Britannia,’ the BAFTA award winning series ‘History of Modern Britain’, and ‘Boycotts and Broken Dreams: The Story of the 1986 Commonwealth Games’ which he was directing before he died.

Jay was devoted to radio and the art of making creative programmes to expressed humanity. His family and the Department of Media and Communications have set up an annual award in his memory to encourage and reward undergraduate and postgraduate students who wish to follow his legacy.

Details and criteria

1) You have to be enrolled on an undergraduate or postgraduate radio module in the department of media communications during the academic year 2014-15
2) You can nominate yourself by emailing Head of Radio, Tim Crook at t.crook@gold.ac.uk You need to cite your name, the title of your programme and the course code of your module to be considered.
3) You may be nominated by your tutor.
4) A condition of your selection for the award is that your programme is cleared legally to be uploaded (copyright, libel, privacy and criminal law etc) and accessible for public listening on the Jay Merriman-Mukoro memorial website.
5) Another condition of your selection for the award is that the Department and College has permission to promote your success through media releases and online articles.
6) The award will be judged by staff tutors and visiting professionals.
7) The decision of the judges shall be final.
8) The programmes entered can be from any genre including journalism, drama, documentary, drama-documentary or soundscape/sound art.